NOT FIGHTING THE REVIEW IS ABOUT MOVIE "The Fighter" is a great, gutsy boxing story, a knowingly detailed, compelling, often very funny look inside the lives of underdogs battling for respect. The Fighter is a drama with brains to go along with its ample physical and emotional punches.
Even when it's still, it keeps moving. Great boxing movies seem to periodically re-emerge despite the sport's decline into near irrelevancy, even among its loyal enthusiast.
Phenomenal performances, sturdy writing, and a great true-life story running far deeper than your typical sports tale are the elements that most stand out in The Fighter.
The story is formulatic as usual like any other fight movie but its execution is so strong across the board. The Fighter is based on the true story of boxers 'Irish' Micky Ward( MARK WAHLBERG) & Dicky Eklund (Christian bale), half-brothers from a large family from Lowell, Massachusetts, The Fighter is perfectly cast all the way around.
From childhood on up, Dicky was the older brother who taught his younger sibling how to handle himself in the ring, outside his mom. Micky's probably the more talented of the two, or at least the one who went on to have a solid career as a boxer.
Their relationship as boxers and brothers is put under the microscope in this absorbing, heart-wrenching underdog tale from director David O Russell.
What makes Fighter exceptional from other boxing movies is the fact the story isn't confined to the ring. The action in the boxing ring is merely a supporting player to the drama played out in Micky and Dicky's family life.
Less fights more the emotional battles and wounds inflicted by words alone are the heart and soul of this compelling drama.
A fitting tribute to a real-life Rocky and Adrian featuring a quartet of inspired performances by Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Melissa Leo and Amy Adams. Bale is just above all wow deserves an award , the look lost weight, the mannerisms, the passion that Bale brings to this role easily makes him a Best Supporting Actor contender.
I love Mark, effortless acting but bale steals the show. The dynamic between the family is a awesome. Watching Dicky jump out of a window is the dysfunctional highlight of this film. Micky, Alice and even Jack McGee as George Ward gets in on the action.
George, never take a swing at a boxer are few great scenes. "The Fighter" is like a big, unruly party, a harmonious discord of overlapping voices and competing agendas.
The ensemble scenes, with Melissa Leo as the brothers' hard-shellacked mom, Alice, and her brood of a half-dozen smart-mouthed daughters, leave you feeling alternately baffled and beset.
Alice, a bossy, slings plates at her current husband when she's peeved. You can see why Micky and Dicky felt at home in the ring; they learned to duck early. In “The Fighter, ”Mark shows great energy, range and misery, and he’s just as convincing as a confused and determined guy outside the ring as he is a brawler in it. The performances here are top-notch, Christian Bale gives arguably his greatest performance.
Bony, restless, egoistic, self-destructive, given to charming natter but uncannily aware about boxing, he moves in circles -- and those circles move, you can see 3 or 4 sides of him at once.
Alice(Mom) is played by Melissa Leo with sauce, swagger and the most evil sort of mother love. Amy Adams, Micky’s new gal of all souls, plays foul-mouthed, earthy Charlene with little regard for her sweetheart-of-the-movies persona.Fine acts can be delievered if Director has vision here director David O. Russell gets into a film with classic bones but modern skin.
The film finds adrenalized energy everywhere in Micky’s training sessions and fights, in Dicky’s addled madness, in the cacaphony of Alice and her ghastly chorus of daughters. Many landmark boxing movies are there but it’s a film possessed of its own force, wit and style, and it builds to a moving climax that totally pays off.
Director David O. Russell has created a casual masterpiece, an irresistibly enjoyable film that makes everything else in theaters feel like yesterday's news. The Fighter a winner is being able to witness Micky Ward's sometimes traumatic, sometimes uplifting journey taken to becoming a champion. And you absolutely do not have to follow boxing to be able to be a fan of The Fighter .
“The Fighter” is a great boxing movie, a great Massachusetts movie, and a great showcase for its lead actors. The Fighter is entertaining from beginning to end and contains two brilliant and extreme supporting performances that are among the year's best.
The milieu, of working class Lowell, Mass., is re-created in rich detail, and Mark Wahlberg, as real-life welterweight Micky Ward, is an engaging locus of audience sympathy. No one will walk out of "The Fighter" thinking this is anything less than a quality project.
Even in a good year at the movies, it would be a standout. If you miss this one than you lost a lot. Watch it.
