The Fighter (2010) Paramount/Drama RT: 116 minutes Rated R (language throughout, drug content, some violence, sexuality) Director: David O. Russell Screenplay: Scott Silver, Paul Tamsay and Eric Johnson Music: Michael Brook Cinematography: Hoyte van Hoytema Release date: December 10, 2010 (US) Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Melissa Leo, Mickey O’Keefe, Jack McGee, Melissa McMeekin, Bianca Hunter, Erica McDermott, Jill Quigg, Dendrie Taylor, Kate O’Brien, Jenna Lamia, Frank Renzulli, Paul Campbell, Caitlin Dwyer, Chanty Sok, Ted Arcidi, Ross Bickell, Sean Malone, Jose Antonio Rivera, Alison Folland, Sean Patrick Doherty, Sugar Ray Leonard. Box Office: $93.6M (US)/$129.1M (World)
Rating: ****
Okay, I’ll say it even though I hate to resort to clichés. The Fighter is a first-round KO! It was a most unexpected outcome. I walked into it expecting yet another formulaic underdog sports drama in which some low-level boxer gets a shot at the title. I’m pleased to report The Fighter is NOT a subpar Rocky knock-off. On the contrary, it’s the best boxing movie I’ve seen since Raging Bull.
In addition to a riveting sports tale, The Fighter is an engrossing personal drama centered on two brothers from a large, loud Irish-American family in the working-class burg of Lowell, MA. Boxer Micky Ward (Wahlberg, Invincible) is what you call a “stepping stone” meaning he typically fights up-and-coming boxers looking for an easy win on their way up. His older brother Dicky (Bale, The Dark Knight) is his trainer; that is, when he’s not off somewhere getting high on crack. A former boxer himself, his claim to fame is knocking down Sugar Ray Leonard during a 1978 match. Cameras follow him around town filming him for an HBO documentary* he thinks is about his comeback. It’s not.
Micky’s brassy mother Alice (Leo, Frozen River) is his manager. Although she’s been doing it for years, she’s not very good at her job. If anything, she’s holding Micky back. An undercard fight in Atlantic City becomes a humiliating defeat for Micky after she and Dicky encourage the welterweight to fight a last-minute replacement, a heavyweight who outweighs him by 20 lbs.
The catalyst for change is Micky getting his hand broken by cops while trying to protect Dicky from a beating while being arrested. He decides to wash his hands of his brother once and for all. With some encouragement from his girlfriend Charlene (Adams, Julie & Julia), he signs on with a new manager (Renzulli, Broadway Danny Rose) who agrees to represent him only if he keeps his brother and mother out of it. With his father (McGee, Lethal Weapon 2) and new trainer Mickey O’Keefe (playing himself) in his corner, he starts winning fights eventually earning a shot at the welterweight title.
I’ll concede that The Fighter is somewhat predictable with an ending that’s never in doubt. That doesn’t make it any less powerful or exciting. Director David O. Russell (Three Kings) imbues the proceedings with gritty street realism and naturalistic settings. It gets pretty intense with Micky’s family, a sizable clan that includes seven loud sisters, all of whom believe they have their baby brother’s best interests at heart. Alice and her girls take as instant dislike to Charlene who isn’t afraid to speak her mind when it comes to her fellow. She has to; he’s afraid to speak out against them because they’re family. That is Micky’s tragic flaw, his loyalty to his incredibly dysfunctional family, his mom and brother in particular. He has to make a difficult but obvious choice. The thing about Alice is that there’s real love (with an undercurrent of self-serving) behind everything she does. At the end of the day, she just wants to hold her family together in the face of rough circumstances, mostly brought on by Dicky’s drug use. One of the film’s major accomplishments is showing the effects of addiction on the user’s family. To Russell’s credit, he doesn’t turn The Fighter into an anti-drug PSA.
Russell, working from a punchy script by Scott Silver, Paul Tamsay and Eric Johnson, manages the tricky feat of eliciting captivating performances from all four leads. Bale and Leo deservedly won Oscars (Actor and Actress, Supporting) for their work. Bale completely inhabits his character’s tics and mannerisms while Leo flawlessly portrays a fiercely protective mother prone to violent fits of anger when she feels betrayed. Wahlberg continues to grow as an actor with an incredible performance as Micky. It’s getting easier to forget he was rapper Marky Mark (of the Funky Bunch) once upon a time in the early 90s. His muscular physique, the result of four years of training for the role, certainly helps. Adams steps out of her comfort zone to play Charlene, a college dropout working as a bartender. She takes crap from NOBODY. When the sisters show up at her house looking for a fight, she gives them one. The Fighter is definitely an acting tour de force.
The fight scenes in The Fighter are especially well done. They should be, they were handled by the same director and crew that filmed the real-life fights for HBO. They really give the film a sense of excitement. You know, I can’t think of a single thing wrong with The Fighter. It’s an outstanding film on every conceivable level. It’s a little on the heavy side, but it’s completely rewarding in the end.
* = “Crack in America” aired in ’95.
