Between Rocky and a hard place

Rating: 5/10 (25 February 2011)

The quote on one poster for David "Three Kings" O Russell's spirited, hackneyed boxing biopic proclaims it to be the best since Rocky. I guess it's best not to remind folks of Martin Scorsese's magisterial masterpiece, lest audiences stay home and turn on the DVD player instead.
Mark Wahlberg plays Micky Ward, the rough, rising star from the malnourished streets of Massachusetts. Christian Bale plays his half-brother and trainer, Dicky, a falling star who once tripped up Sugar Ray Leonard in the ring. They're surrounded by women: Micky's monstrous mother-cum-manager, Alice (Melissa Leo), a thousand ugly sisters, and no-nonsense girl-next-door Charlene (Amy Adams). Arguments ensue - fickle feuds and anguished hugs - and we even get some boxing toward the end.
It comes across as the wonky-nosed, crackhead triplet of The King's Speech and 127 Hours, insofar as it is an almost feverishly inspiring, consoling film born out of hard times. Except the performances here are relatively one-dimensional. And the script, credited to four writers, comes disconcertingly to life as a bizarre Frankenstein creation - sometimes a family farce, sometimes a sports drama cliché checklist, sometimes a maudlin forgive-a-thon under afternoon porches - and excels at nothing.
As for the boxing scenes... Flat. Cursory. Russell just doesn't seem altogether interested. Which, in the final moment, is no surprise. A formula fighting film will always end with a ruckus - yet by that point all the conflict within the family has been defused. The writers attempt to surgically implant some drama into the climactic battle by having Dicky give one last stirring speech. But it's hard to soar on the zephyr of an afterthought.
There are some good individual scenes in The Fighter, especially early on. The introduction to the half-brothers has them bouncing through Lowell, inhabiting their time and place, while the camera spins and glides. The aforementioned sisters provide some amusement as a chorus of permanent disdain. In fact, while the film sustains its first-third burlesque tone, it's fun. And there is definite pleasure in watching Bale return to the feral grandstanding with which he made his name prior to the constraints of Bruce Wayne.
The Fighter ticks a lot of boxes - too many. The result isn't a disaster, but nor is it Best Picture.