"The Fighter" should've been a great movie. Really. Its supposed to have everything: drama, action, romance.
So what went wrong?
Okay, well, let's start at the beginning:
It is 1993 in the small town of Lowell, Massachussets. We are joined by Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) and Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale) as they wander the neighbourhood, followed by a film crew. Why are they being followed by a film crew? Well, it is a crew from HBO who are tracking the comeback of Dicky Eklund, a young fighter who once knocked out Sugar Ray Leonard in 1978. Dicky is Micky's older brother, and he taught him everything he needed to know about boxing and life. Dicky was Micky's idol. But whatever potential Dicky had quickly evaporated after he fell in with the wrong people and became addicted to cocaine. Micky, however, has chosen a safer path. He is a good boxer. In fact, he is a great boxer who just needs a litte guidance and some luck to get his way. The problem is that he is managed by the wrong people: his mother, Alice (Mellisa Leo) is his manager, and he also gets some help from his father George (Jack McKee), though his advice is often shot down by the rest of his family. He has a travelling band of supporters in his seven sisters who all live at home and seem more interested in Micky making money and boxing then showing any real affection towards their brother.
Micky lands a fight in a bid to start climbing up the boxing hierarchy, but the boxer pulls out the night before, and he is given the option of fighting a replacement boxer. He is told the replacement is unfit and untrained, and ready for the taking. Without thinking much about it, Micky's family urges him to fight (why? oh, well, because they won't get paid if he doesn't). Micky takes the fight, but arrives at the ring and finds the guy outweighs him by 20pounds and is as ripped as any fighter he's ever been up against. Micky does his best, but is taken to the cleaners. He starts to decline, but through the support of his bartender girlfriend, Charlene (Amy Adams), he tries to put his life in perspective. He is offered a wonderful opportunity to train in Las Vegas, away from his family and brother, and make a real run at the whole boxing thing. He wants to do it, but doesn't want to leave Dicky, who is just falling deeper and deeper off the rails. Dicky promises to get Micky money to keep him at home, and after trying a few criminal acts, it all catches up to him in one scene that involves him getting arrested and sent to prison. We really want Micky to actually leave his family and go train with professional trainers because he has potential, he has the desire, but is to afraid to let go of his overbearing family. It is frustrating to watch as we just want Micky to tell them off, but he doesn't.
Where this film falls flat is the connection between Micky and his family, and Micky's inability to actually take control of his own life by his own measures. We just don't feel that his family, particularly his mother and his sisters, have any real concern for Micky other then his fighting. They are just too involved in his affairs. Micky meets Charlene and we start to see him becoming more focused, more determined, but it is his family that is ultimately holding him back. There is one scene, where he is happy in the arms of the women he loves, when the women of his family march to Charlene's house to "demand Micky back". I honestly was so annoyed with this scene and everything about it: the acting by the sisters in this scene (and in the movie as a whole) is rather pathetic and forced, and it was just out of place. Micky is a grown man, a fighter, who should just be left alone to get on with what he has to do.
And that's where this movie doesn't quite make the grade. The characters aren't believable, and the close-knit, concerned family unit that the writers and director were trying to convey, just falls flat because of it.
The acting by the rest of the cast is good: Mellissa Leo's character is really annoying and downright rude and pretentious sometimes, but Leo pulls off a good performance. Amy Adams does a fine job as Charlene and plays quite a different character to what we're used to. Mark Wahlberg's performance gets better as the movie progresses. In the beginning we're not quite sure where he's headed, but it definitely picks up, and in truth we start to really care about him and want him to make the right choices. As with "The Departed", Wahlberg is becoming a better actor with each passing role. Adams and Wahlberg will most likely get some Oscar recognition for their roles.
But it is Christian Bale that truly carries this film on his shoulders. He puts in a great performance as Wahlberg's crackhead criminal brother, and convincingly gives us a man who had so much potential, but has sunk away to complete nothingness. Bale's transformation is truly remarkable where we truly believe he is Dicky Eklund, the fighter who could've had everything but ended up with just memories. Expect Bale to get some deserved Oscar recognition for this performance, and if you consider his repertoire of work in his career (from American Psycho to The Dark Knight), then it truly is overdue.
The direction is solid, but the best shot scenes were the HBO documentary about Dicky - in prison he gets to see who he truly is. The director did a great job forging these two worlds together. The boxing scenes were also good and realistic. But ultimately, we just don't get a grip on the characters, and in the end we want Micky to find success just for himself, Charlene and Dicky. We want the family to have no joy because, quite frankly, they don't deserve it.
Overall, this is not a bad movie. But as I was watching, I just thought it could've been so much better.
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