The Fighter

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source: The Fighter

Lots of boxing films have been made over the years, some that are done well and make for great entertainment based purely on the script/storyline, this film does not fit in to that category. I never at any point of this film felt like I was drawn in to the story, and it never makes you feel part of the story being told, the acting is poor, and why did they cast Bale? He is over rated and I find him annoying to watch as an actor. It was a real drag to watch this till the end, and I was glad when it ended, poorly directed, sub standard acting makes this film a real disappointment. 3 out of 10

In Lowell, Massachusetts, the HBO is filming a documentary about the life of the former boxer Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale), who is known as "The Pride of Lowell". Dicky knocked down Sugar Ray Leonard years ago, but now he is crack addict and the trainer of his young half-brother welterweight Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg), who is managed by their despotic mother Alice Ward (Melissa Leo) and is actually a brawler used to promote other fighters. After another defeat, due to the acceptance of Dicky and Alice of a fight against a stronger boxer weighing 10 kg more than he, the ashamed Micky meets the bartender and drop out college girl Charlene Fleming (Amy Adams) and she helps him to see that that his career will have no progress if Dicky and Alice continue to administrate it. When Dicky is sent to prison for another wrongdoing, HBO broadcasts the documentary, which is actually about crack in America and not about Dicky's career, affecting the lives of his family and friends in Lowell. Micky restarts his career with another trainer and manager and he climbs in the rank. But Dicky is released and Micky believes he is important to help him to win the World Championship, against the will of Charlene and his coach. "The Fighter" is an extraordinary film about losers that have the chance to become winners. The entire cast has magnificent performances but Christian Bale is really awesome in the role of a junk in one of his best performances, thin like his character in the 2004 "The Machinist". This is the first time that I see the gorgeous Amy Adams without any glamor but she is still a very beautiful woman. The most impressive is that this dramatic story is based on a true story. Outstanding! My vote is nine. Title (Brazil): "O Vencedor" ("The Winner")

As any movie of this type has to do, it finally draws you into the protagonist's situation and gets you rooting for him. In this case the protagonist is real-life boxer Mickey Ward (Mark Wahlberg) who has to overcome big odds - not the least of which is an extremely dysfunctional family headed up by his controlling mother Alice (Melissa Leo) and his drug addict brother Dicky (Christian Bale) who used to be a boxer and who's claim to fame was knocking down Sugar Ray Leonard (or did Sugar Ray slip?) and who now wants to live his dream through his brother. I appreciated the fact that Sugar Ray appeared as himself in a couple of brief scenes. By the time Mickey gets his title shot you are rooting for him, and you do admire his strength in overcoming the challenges he's faced. The actual title shot, mind you, struck me as a bit anti- climactic to be honest. It was pretty quickly portrayed and frankly the whole thing ultimately left me a bit empty, although I was satisfied to see Mickey become the champ. For three-quarters of the movie, though, the focus is really on the dysfunctional family relationship, and the challenge presented to that relationship by the sudden appearance of Charlene (Amy Adams) - a local bartender and college dropout who hooks up with Mickey and pushes him to escape his family's controlling influence. This was a good performance from Adams. I found her the most interesting of the cast, because she was playing a character very different from the usual cute and sweet roles I've seen her in, and so she demonstrated a versatility I hadn't seen from her before. Wahlberg and Bale were all right, but I didn't find anything especially noteworthy about their performances. In the end, the biggest weakness of this movie was that it really failed to draw me in until the title fight (and to an extent the fight that led up to the title fight.) I was bored frankly by the family, who struck me as a sort of Massachussetts version of "white trash" and who weren't really all that interesting. I can't imagine growing up with those sisters. Mickey deserves credit just for not punching any of them out. This really didn't do a great deal for me. It offers about half an hour that really intensely interested me, which fizzled out in a truly too abrupt ending and focused mostly on an unappealing family.

There have been so many good boxing movies over the years: Raging Bull and Rocky set the bar extremely high for boxing movies; On the Waterfront showed a great portrayal of a failed boxer dealing with life; Million Dollar Baby was a spectacular look at the relationship between boxer and trainer; Cinderella Man was a perfect example of the comeback; Somebody Up There Likes Me was a nice movie; The Boxer (Daniel Day Lewis) was a great film about overcoming the odds; Hard Times (Charles Bronson) was a terrific film about bare fisted boxing. The Fighter was not comparable to the aforementioned movies in many ways: there was no character development whatsoever -- so you do not feel the joy of a Rocky winning or the pain of Maggie Fitzgerald breaking her neck -- you feel nothing at the end. The script was laced with profanity -- way too much profanity -- you feel like you are the one being punched in the face with all the foul language. I do not think there is a single line that does not have the F-bomb (or an equivalent vileness) spouted from any of the characters. The movie plays like a foul-mouthed Jerry Springer episode and looks like it was made for today's vile, uneducated, ignorant generation. I admire that the "real" Mickey fought against the odds and won a title and I admire that the "real" Dicky cleaned his life up and went on to help his brother in his time of need. I do not think the movie's portrayal of the characters did much to emphasize what could have been a good movie about comebacks and life changes. Not Rocky--not Raging Bull--nowhere near Million Dollar Baby or Cinderella Man--wait for it on video.

When I worked in a kitchen one of my colleagues - Scott - was obsessed with films who seemed to spend every spare moment either in a cinema or at home with a pile of DVDs . I should point that he was someone who had no interest in anything art house . Everything Scott watched had to be either American , feature a big name or feature an action sequence so our tastes weren't very similar . Regardless of this one film Scott felt the need to rave about was THE FIGHTER . I'd seen the trailers and vaguely knew the story of Micky Ward and felt it was going to be clichéd true story bio-pic with embellishment and a happy ending . In other words it was going to be a seen it all before sports movie . " Okay Scott " I asked " What's the selling point ? " " The acting Theo .It's brilliantly acted especially Christian Bale who plays MarkWahlberg's brother . He plays his trainer " Sometimes acting alone can't carry a film - only bring a film down and when I watch a film I'm after a good story so decided not to bother with THE FIGHTER until it was broadcast on Channel 4 . After seeing it I came to the conclusion that both Scott's opinion and my own are totally correct Bale is an actor who is fortunate in that the roles he will be most remembered for are those that belong in a franchise such as BATMAN BEGINS and TERMINATOR SALVATION . You could argue he's luckier than he is talented but here as Micky Ward's half brother Dicky Eklund , a crack addicted , brain damaged former boxer he gives an acting tour de force . You know when you're on the bus and someone gets on and you mutter to yourself " Please don't sit anywhere near me please " that's the exact feeling you see when Eklund appears on screen . One wonders if Bale should have been drug tested after each scene such is his convincing performance . It's a story of mean streets and of mean people hitting rock bottom and you don't feel you're watching actors merely going through their paces Where the film does fall down it's down to the usual flaw of making true stories dramatic and having to restructure things . Ward beats up and coming boxer Alfonso Sanchez which means he gets a world title shot against Shea Neary in Britain . In reality Ward fought another 6 fights , losing two of them before he got the title fight against Neary and with all due respect the title fight in question was for the World Boxing Union ( WBU ) which most boxing fans consider a mere " alphabet title " not a world title at all . Also the film feels the need to dramatise the fight with Ward being dead on his feet in round three . In reality Ward was wobbled in that round but didn't hit the deck . The fight was a slugfest for sure but was never as one sided as portrayed here . Perhaps most disappointingly of all Ward's three legendary fights with Arturo Gatti are relegated to a caption at the end of the movie In all THE FIGHTER is the cinematic equivalent of the battle between Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard . It's a definite split decision . You can se why people loved the film , you can see why people liked the film , you can see why people disliked it and perhaps why people hated it . I'm certainly hedging my bets and voting for a draw