THE FIGHTER is, surprisingly to me, a great movie – I normally don’t expect much of Mark Wahlberg since his atrocious performance in 2008’s THE HAPPENING, but he’s adequate enough here so as not to distract. The real stars of the show are its supporting cast: Christian Bale is incredible as Dicky, Melissa Leo astounds (as always) as tough matriarch Alice Ward, and Amy Adams is very good as the no-nonsense girlfriend who inspires Micky to finally break his losing patterns. THE FIGHTER also greatly inspires - it aims to be the next ROCKY and actually comes close. The film shows enough heart and inventiveness that it’s now one of my favorite films of the Oscar season.
Dicky is blue-collar Lowell, Massachusetts’ former boxing champ, having long ago fought Sugar Ray Leonard in the ring. But his boxing days are now over, replaced by drug addiction and a life of petty crime. He trains his younger half-brother Micky (Wahlberg), the town and family's new hope despite a losing streak and his advancing age for a fighter. Their hardscrabble mother Alice (Leo) manages Micky’s flailing fighting career until new girlfriend Charlene (Adams), convinces Micky to drop his family’s professional involvement in his career and go on his own. After doing so, Micky’s record takes a dramatic upturn, and he must ultimately decide whether to allow his newly rebounded brother and the rest of his dysfunctional family into training for the fight of his life, the World Championships.
This is an impressive cast, down to the smallest of characters, all so gritty, flawed, and complex: the red-faced Jack McGee as Micky’s father, Mickey O’Keefe (playing himself) as the town’s police seargent and Micky’s part-time trainer, and Micky’s hilariously obtuse sisters, among them “Tar,” “Beaver,” “Pork,” “Red Dog” and yes, many more. Their crazy hairstyles alone should get an award. Your heart latches on all of these individuals because you somehow know and recognize them – it’s real life translated perfectly to the screen. David O. Russell should be proud. Heck, he should be proud for simply creating a boxer movie that stands out in such a long line of them. And for making someone who utterly detests boxing and boxing movies sit up straight and pay beady-eyed attention. (Tisk-tisk for using a poster so similar to THE WRESTLER’s. Interestingly enough thought, that film’s director, Darren Aronofsky, served as an executive producer on this film.)
The Batman himself transforms into another creature altogether in Dicky, and Bale should win an Oscar for it, hands down. He is on for every second he’s in front of you, and you can’t help but gawk. His portrayal reminds me of Leo Dicaprio’s transformative work as Arnie in WHAT’S EATING GILBERT GRAPE? Both characters stick with you after leaving the theater, and both put the men playing them on your radar for keeps if they weren’t already. Bale has always struck a bit of a patrician note for me, perhaps based on his wealthy, pampered Bruce Wayne, uber yuppie Patrick Bateman (AMERICAN PSYCHO) and Laurie in LITTLE WOMEN. Here he embodies a poor, drug-addled, inarticulate and paranoid but charmingly childlike and fiercely proud man, head over heels in love with boxing and his town. Time for this reviewer to finally break out so many of those smaller Christian Bale films I never got around to seeing…
THE FIGHTER could also gain Melissa Leo her first Oscar. She’d already bowled me over in the recent WELCOME TO THE RILEYS and CONVICTION, but she takes the cake with Alice Ward: proud, haughty, tough, aggressive. And yes: mean and manipulative. But so intensely devoted to her family (including her many, many daughters, with whom she eventually faces off with Charlene, OK Corral-like). Despite her foibles, you respect the hell out of her. And for God’s sake, you would never want to cross her. She and Bale also both masterfully affect the local accent, all too common a pitfall for many a fine actor. These two make it look easy. They are shoe-ins for nominations. What they do in THE FIGHTER is what movies are all about.
Amy Adams also does wonderfully as the determined new girlfriend Micky meets in a bar and gutsy enough to confront Alice and her umpteen daughters in their home. Micky’s resolve to seek new management begins to flag in the face of a united, female opposition, and the instant Charlene voices protest, the oxygen rushes out of the room. The moment is so tense as the ladies of the house absorb the news that a strange woman just crossed them in their own home that you want to slink out the room yourself. That tension comes to blows in a later scene, but while most women (or men, for that matter) would back down, Charlene just gets angrier. The character could easily have come across as strident, but in Adams’ capable hands Charlene maintains dignity even when her temper gets the best of her.
The settings are indeed the real thing: Lowell is not a pretty town. The place has hit hard times, and it shows: it’s gray, dirty and dilapidated, like too many American communities in recent decades. You can see it in the beaten down expressions on the faces of its inhabitants, whether acting or as themselves, though there’s still that hint of steely, go-fuck-yourself pride in the eyes. The boxing matches feel like you’re watching them on TV, grainy and brightly lit. Wahlberg has stated in interviews that none of the blows you see are pretend. And finally, despite the hard lives of these true-to-life characters, the bleak settings and inherent dangers of boxing itself, THE FIGHTER is, in the end, a very funny film. Again, part of what makes the humor so effective is how real everything feels; your mind grabs on to little details you recognize from your own life, regardless of whether you’ve been to Lowell or Massachusetts or New England, and you can’t help but react with laughter. Sometimes that laughter comes out of amusement. Sometimes it’s out of astonishment that you’ve just seen a bit of yourself on screen, in a way.
In addition to his starring role, Mark Wahlberg also produced the film, a sizeable feather in his cap. And perhaps it was a calculated move to play the film’s straight man considering the brilliant character actors that surround him in THE FIGHTER. To his credit, through his understated performance he allows them to shine and truly do what they do best.
This is David O. Russell’s first feature film since 2004’s I HEART HUCKABEES, a movie that not only disappointed at the box office but revealed his maniacal side, as heard anecdotally and seen in the infamous video of his screaming match with Lily Tomlin. There’s a reason he’s reviled by many in Hollywood. However, despite this rocky past, THE FIGHTER finally propels this talented but irascible director back into the limelight, and quite deservedly.
Director: David O. Russell
Writers: Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Melissa Leo
Run Time: 116 minutes
Now playing in select theatres