The Fighter (2010–115mins) M. Wahlberg, C. Bale, M. Leo, A. Adams

The Fighter made out pretty well at the Oscars this year. It was nominated for a bunch of awards and took home the statues for best supporting actor (Christian Bale) and actress (Melissa Leo). It’s a Rocky story about an up and coming boxer being trained in part, by his retired and troubled boxer brother. Mark Wahlberg is Mickey Ward, a boxer who isn’t the greatest in the world but has a big heart and some good trainers around him. His trainer brother is Dickey Eklund played by Christian Bale. Dickey is a smart boxer and smart trainer but his limiting factors in life are his pushy mother and chronic drug abuse. Dickey also once had great potential and who even fought Sugar Ray Leonard, but his own vices lead to his downfall and he just can’t seem to shake them. Mickey also meets a love interest in the movie who also sees the potential in him. Amy Adams is the head strong bad ass Boston chick Charlene. Charlene knows that with the right training Mickey can be a champ, but his misguided mother, crazy bunch of sisters, and drug addled brother are all holding him back.

It’s a great movie and definitely worth the best picture nomination. I haven’t seen all of the movies that were nominated to say whether it should have won, but as much as I enjoyed “Inception” this was a bit better then that. As far as the other wins, Christian Bale 100% deserved to win the best supporting actor award. He was truly amazing in the Dickey role. He has transformed himself physically and mentally into the personification of the drug addicted brother. He is so convincing in the part you don’t see Bale at all you are just drawn into the part and mesmerized by the train wreck. As for Melissa Leo as the misguided mother Alice, she is very good, and I still cannot believe how she can manage to morph herself into the different roles she has done lately and she’s better and better with each one. However, as good as she was in this movie, the statue truly should have gone to Amy Adams. Adams is more believable as the girlfriend and delivers a more powerful role then Leo. Even tho I cannot fault either one and they both are brilliant in my mind Adams delivers the better of the 2 performances.

I am a huge Wahlberg fan and love his work and ability to do drama and comedy well. Unfortunately I think he is one of the few areas in “The Fighter” that I was not all that impressed with (other then the awfully choreographed fight scenes). I don’t see young boxer Mickey in him, I see him just being Mark Wahlberg as a boxer. The film doesn’t suffer from this but when you think back to the movie the things that truly stand out are Adams and Bale. It’s worth seeing the movie is just for their performances.

Verdict–> A great movie with some oscar winning/deserving performances. Pick it up when you can and watch it, just a great rental.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS