This is a case where my expectations were a little too high so that, despite being a very fine film in many ways, I left the theater a little disappointed. The Fighter tells the story, based on real events in the early 1990s, of Micky Ward, an aspiring boxer, as he tries to clamber from obscurity to “be somebody.†As with most boxing movies, it is not so much about boxing as about some sort of personal struggle that stands in the way of success. The personal struggle for Micky, played by Mark Wahlberg, is his family in south Boston, and in particular, his brother, Dickie Eklund (different fathers), played by Christian Bale, and his mother played by Melissa Leo. Both put in extraordinary performances, Bale especially so. The first hour and fifteen minutes traces Micky’s efforts to get out from under Alice and Dicke’s thumbs; both are controlling, with Alice favoring Dickie (who is hoping for a comeback fight), seeing Micky’s fights as a way to may some money for the family rather than advance his prospects, and Dickie succumbing to his crack addiction.
The emotional core of the film is Dickie, so powerful is Bale’s performance. At the beginning of the film, we learn that an HBO crew is following Dickie around because, we assume, he is seeking a comback fight. It turns out that it is for a documentary about crack addiction, and there is a superb scene as Dickie watches it in prison, along with the other inmates, and his bravado turns quickly to anger and embarrassment, as he pleads for the TV to be turned off.
Special mention should go to Amy Adams, as Charlene, Micky’s girlfriend. Adams swears like a sailor (not that I have had direct experience of many sailors) and is fiercely protective of Micky. Adams is seen with a fair amount of cellulite, frequently in closeup without any makeup, so that her pores are clearly visible. She blends into the role so well that it is hard to recall that she was in Enchanted,  and she is able to hold her own with Leo and Bale.
The last 30 minutes or so are much more conventional, as Micky begins to win, patches things up with Alice and Dickie, and, in a series of fights, demonstrates that the rope-a-dope still worked almost two decades after Ali perfected it. We get a happy ending, and indeed Micky did become the welterweight champion. After the amount of emotional energy expended in the first hour, it is both a relief and a letdown to follow action that takes place exclusively in the ring. But that should not take away from the best ensemble acting performance that I have seen this year.
i agree with chris’s take. we saw this today (in our ongoing series of thursday morning oscar-bait outings) and both thought that the performances are the best thing about this movie.
[i will now move to the first person singular.]
the above is not to say that i did not like the movie–i actually liked it a fair bit but, as chris notes, the second half seemed a little more conventional than the first, which pushes against genre expectations more interestingly. also, wahlberg is a little out of his depth around the intensity of leo, bale and adams’ performances–a better actor could have made his decisions more compelling. at any rate, the increased emphasis on his character unbalances the film. i wanted to spend more time with the family, in the bars, on the streets, and less time finding out if micky was going to become a contender in the end or not. still, a fine film, and i’m glad i watched it.
I’m glad you watched it, too. This morning I woke up a little sad. I wasn’t sure the day would really make sense to me… thank goodness this post was here.
Context?
I was just fucking with Arnab. I really don’t give a damn that he’s glad. And I’m not really sad, just mean.
mike’s just mad because the world now knows of his support for censorship.
I’d like to see a boxing movie in which the boxer is pretty good, but not amazing. He has a pretty decent family, just the usual headaches. But overall nothing to complain about. He wins a few matches, loses a few. His manager is not related to him in any way, but they get along fine. The manager is pretty good, really, and it is surprising he still hangs out at the local ring. Should be in Philly or New York. But I guess the manager just, well, he’s fine where he is. The boxer gets ripped off by a promoter every once in the while but nothing too serious, and anyway it comes with the territory. Then the boxer retires. The end.
Yes, you were all right about this film. Bale was grand, Adams superb, the acting delightful, the flick ultimately a bit flaccid but fine.
I like having a thread called “The Fighter” that is all of us agreeing on the film.