A splendid film

Rating: 10/10 (18 February 2011)

I am not a fan of boxing, but I understand the irresistible attraction it exercises on many people, including filmmakers who try to capture all the drama, pain and passion generated into the ring in the big screen. Boxing is an undoubtedly difficult sport, which cannot be practiced by anybody; and even though it requires many sacrifices, it can also offer extraordinary rewards (at least under Hollywood's affected interpretation). So, the best movies about boxing have a perfect combination of emotion, drama and action...as we can now see in The Fighter, an extraordinary film which departs a little bit from the formula, but without ignoring the traditional elements which can make this sub-genus to be cathartic and satisfactory.
In films like Rocky, Cinderella Man and The Wrestler, the fight in the ring is a metaphor of the real fight from the main character, either if it is for going out of poverty, for showing his personal value or for recovering the dignity which was snatched to him by life in other aspects. But in The Fighter, the fights are a peripheral element, because the real conflict is not on the ring, but in the modest suburbs from Lowell, Massachussets, where the characters must face emotional disputes and take hard decisions which will deeply affect their future as well as their family. Do not misunderstand me...the fights are fantastically filmed, and they brought me great moments of hope, tragedy and suspense. But the most memorable scenes (at least by my point of view) were not the punching, falls and miraculous recoveries, but the dramatic confrontations from the main character with his brother, his mother, his trainers, his girlfriend, and other people who only wanna see him triumphing, even though they do not coincide in the way he must take to achieve it.
Before watching The Fighter, I was fearing that it would be a simple boxing rehash of the brilliant film The Wrestler, which was directed by Darren Aronofsky; and my fears were accentuated when I found out that Aronofsky himself was a co-producer of The Fighter. However, after having watched this movie, I have to say that there is nothing to fear of...even though both films have a vaguely similar story, their style and atmosphere are very different. The only things they have in common are the high quality from the performances and the emotional impact they provoked on me. Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale bring excellent performances, and the acclamation they both received is absolutely deserved. The supporting cast also made a perfect work, starting by Melissa Leo and Amy Adams as the mother and the lover (respectively) from the main character. I also liked the work from Jack McGee very much. And finally, the unknown actresses who interpret the 7 daughters from the Ward family also made a brilliant work, and they bring some of the most dramatic and also some of the most humorous moments from this movie.
I also liked the previous work from director David O. Russell, but I think that The Fighter is definitely his best movie so far. One of the things I most liked from The Fighter is the style employed by him, which is fluid and dynamic but at the same time incredibly thorough, capturing the big dramatic moments as well as the small and eloquent details which fill in the narrative holes from the story's periphery with a casual precision, enriching the narrative and increasing the dramatic weight from every scene. It is like watching a story through a filmmaker's eyes; it supposedly should be always like that, but while I was watching The Fighter, I noticed that that is unfortunately something that rarely happens. In conclusion, The Fighter is a splendid film which deserves a highly enthusiastic recommendation for succeeding so much in every single aspect.