Like many of the classic boxing pictures, there are more significant and interesting things happening outside of the ring

Rating: 8/10 (13 February 2011)

This is based on the true story of boxer Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) and his half brother Dicky (Christian Bale), a junkie. They live in working class Lowell, Massachusetts, where everyone is aware of Micky's poor results. Micky is managed by Dicky and his eccentric mother Alice (Melissa Leo). Dickie is deluded by the idea that he himself is going to make a comeback and that the camera crew following him are going to make a movie about his life. Frustratingly for Micky, he has not been winning many of his fights as the opponents organised by Dicky are regularly superior. Further dominating Micky's life are his six sisters, who move together in a pack. The family ties are disrupted when Micky becomes involved with the barmaid Charlene (Amy Adams), a girl who the sisters do not trust at all. When Dicky is arrested and put in gaol Micky is given an offer by a more professional manager, who says he does not want Dicky around as he is too much trouble. Micky must decide whether he is going to turn his back on his brother who has trained him and provided him with regular knowledge.
It took me a long time to warm to Christian Bale's performance in The Fighter. He's so extreme as Dickie, having slimmed down significantly and possessing such highly wired body language. It initially seems like a caricature of a junkie. But David O. Russell's film is too smart to fall into simplicity. As the story develops, Bale's multilayered performance works to accentuate the soul of the film: pride. Dickie's showiness and exaggeration is deliberate. He's playing up to the cameras in the film, thinking they're making a movie about his life. But as he becomes aware of the reality and the shame that he has brought on himself and most significantly his young son, his star fades. Bale touchingly infuses his character with a vulnerable consciousness. O. Russell skilfully draws this notion of pride from the other performances too. Tension is built from the decay of the family structure. We learn that Alice has been preparing both of her sons to be boxers since they were small children and thus she is not a caricature either. She's extremely possessive but her position as both a mother and a manager is understandable. The best scenes in the film, some of the funniest too, are shared with Alice and the six sisters. They work extremely well to accentuate the themes of family and pride and how significant these values are in a working class town. Out of all the characters however, Adams is the standout. After playing a nun in Doubt she transforms herself seamlessly into a foul mouthed, hardened barmaid. What we don't know about her interests us the most. We know that she dropped out of college so is she using Mickey as an opportunity for herself? Does she have a right to interfere with such a tightly knit family? Some have felt that against these powerful performances Wahlberg is the weak link. I admired the restraint of his quiet performance. It works to show how controlling and dominant the rest of his family is around him. Largely, he's very contained. Most surprising is how very little boxing there is in the film. But like many of the classic boxing pictures, there are more significant and interesting things happening outside of the ring.