Somebody tell me how you make a movie about Mickey Ward without showing Arturo Gatti? It's like making a movie about salt without pepper, peanut butter without jelly, Charlie Sheen without hookers. They just go together. One brief mention of Gatti in the last 10 minutes of the film, and that's it. Nonetheless, this is a well acted movie that tells an excellent story, and that's enough to get the job done.
After seeing 'The Fighter', and previous movies set in this area like 'The Town', 'The Departed', etc..., I can't help but think at this point, "do we really sound like that?". I mean, does everyone from Greater Boston sound like they have a 5th grade education and have to use four letter swears in every other word? For our sake, I certainly hope not.....
'The Fighter' is the story of the rise of Lowell, MA boxer Mickey Ward (Mark Wahlberg), his drug addicted, former boxer brother Dickey Eklund (a nearly unrecognizable Christian Bale), their controlling mother Alice (Melissa Leo) and Ward's girlfriend Charlene (Amy Adams). Mickey's a 'stepping stone' boxer, used by other boxers to beat up and move up in the rankings. Trained by his brother Dickey, Ward's got heart, but doesn't have the training or skill to move up and become a name. Charlene wants to help him, but is an outsider to everyone in Mickey's family, leading to constant bad blood and forcing Mickey to choose between his family and his girlfriend.
Complicating matters is Dickey, the former pride of Lowell, but now just a crack addicted criminal bringing Mickey down. Bale must have lost nearly 50 pounds to play the role for the movie, and is sure to get a best supporting actor win at the Oscars as a result. Unfortunately, I found Bale's acting actually a bit distracting and certainly over the top. He was almost a caricature of Dickey Eklund, and as a sympathetic figure, found no sympathy from me.
I found the morale of the story to be one of letting go, not forgiveness. The film should be a warning and a lesson to people who keep 'friends', family or not, like Dickey and Alice in their life. It's clear how destructive these people were to Mickey Ward's life, both personally and certainly professionally. Who knows how good he would have been had he been properly trained, and not spent years of his prime getting beat up, both literally and figuratively? I thought Wahlberg did a great job showing how torn Ward must have been, knowing what he needed to do to further his life, while finding it impossible to let go of the only thing he knew.
Melissa Leo is fantastic. I'd find it hard to talk to her in real life and not distinguish her from the character she plays in this movie, and that says quite a bit about the job she does. Adams is also excellent in an enormous turn from her roles in movies like 'Enchanted'. The biggest problem I had with the movie is in the boxing scenes. They weren't good. Wahlberg spends the film in the classic boxing pose of his hands up in front of his face, getting pummelled over and over again. Just poorly done boxing scenes overall.
Sorry folks, but I didn't like 'The Fighter' as much as the Academy did. I thought the acting was great, the scenery, background, background actors, and accents were all spot on as well. I certainly liked the movie, and think it tells the story very nicely. I recommend it as well, I just don't think you need to go running out to see it. 3.5 out of 5 stars.
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