Tom Long reviews 'The Fighter': Starring Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Melissa Leo, Amy Adams and Jack McGee
Simply put, "The Fighter" is a knockout.
It's audacious, it's fun, it's rowdy, and it's just twisted enough to always be interesting. Beyond that, it's one of the year's best acting showcases and likely to grab multiple Oscar nominations.
Ostensibly this is a boxing film, but the fighting involved goes way beyond the ring. In fact, aside from one early, brutal beating, most of the boxing is in the film's final third.
But the fighting never stops. Wife fighting husband, brother fighting brother, addict fighting drugs, girlfriend smashing in a sister's nose — this is not what you'd call a calm film.
"The Fighter" is the real-life story of the boxer "Irish" Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg, making it look easy as always), product of a low-rent Boston suburb. As the film begins in the mid-'80s he's 31 years old and his career is on the wane.
That's because his trainer is his constantly tardy, crack-addicted brother, Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale), himself a former boxer, and his manager is his mother Alice (Melissa Leo), who's so in need of money she'd put Micky in the ring with a gorilla if it paid.
Also standing in Micky's corner while blocking it are his seven big-haired sisters, none of whom seems to have jobs or lives beyond the family living room, and Alice's beleaguered husband George (Jack McGee).
Micky's a bundle of bruises and bad decisions when Charlene (Amy Adams) comes into his life. A former athlete, college dropout and working bartender, it doesn't take Charlene long to see Alice and Dicky are taking advantage of Micky at the same time they're squandering his talent.
Micky's on the verge of quitting when Charlene, who is instantly hated by Micky's entire family, aside from George, convinces him to cut Dicky and Alice out of the equation. Helping to make that decision easier is Dicky's bust for amateur pimping.
So Dicky goes off to jail, and Micky goes on to win some fights. But even though his priorities are scrambled much of the time, Dicky does know boxing, and he knows how to help Micky win. Despite all the dysfunction, this family cannot be torn apart.
The first thing that comes at you in this movie — and it comes right at you — is Bale's performance as Dicky. Gaunt with a bald spot on the back of his head, a jumble of nerves and bravado, Dicky is immediately larger and louder than life. At first it seems too obvious, but then you realize the guy is a crack addict, and Bale paints him with tones both comic and poignant.
Every bit as strong are Leo and Adams. How the princess from "Enchanted" got such a mouth on her is anybody's guess, but Adams shows here she's more than just delightful: She's a true actress.
Leo has been a fine actress for years, but she's never been given a character like this. Alice is tough and self-absorbed and a brute, but she's also surprisingly tender at times. There's complexity behind that cloud of cigarette smoke.
Director David O. Russell doesn't get out much — his last film was the spacey "I Heart Huckabees" in 2004, and his best, "Three Kings," was five years before that. But with "The Fighter," he has pulled together a rumble of disparate elements — athletics, drug addiction, family dysfunction, redemption, romance — and fixed them with a crazy energy that permeates the film.
At the center of all this is Wahlberg, who has been involved with this film since 2005. Wahlberg knows Micky is the steady rock in the film and lets his co-stars have their flourishes while he takes the body punches. He is the embodiment of the adage that if you want to be a great actor don't ever let anyone catch you doing it.
Grand entertainment — inspirational, funny, dazzling and surprising — "The Fighter" is one of the year's best.
'The Fighter'
GRADE: A
Rated R: For language throughout, drug content, some violence and sexuality
Running time: 115 minutes
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Mark Wahlberg plays boxer “Irish” Micky Ward in “The Fighter,” which is expected to earn some Oscar nominations. / Paramount Pictures
Christian Bale, left, and Mark Wahlberg play brothers in the film. (Paramount Pictures)
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