The Fighter (2010)

Director: David O. Russell
Story: Keith Dorrington, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Melissa Leo
Music: Michael Brook
Time: 115 minutes
Bottom-line: Not as good as Cinderella Man, but watch for the terrific performances by the leads

David O. Russell’s 2010 sports drama, The Fighter stars Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale and Amy Adams in the lead roles. Based on a true story, the film follows boxer Micky Ward, and how he makes a comeback. Though I liked the film, it fell short of another boxing film I had recently seen – Ron Howard’s Cinderella Man, and also short of the two other O. Russell films I have seen before. But well, if you are a fan of Bale (like me) or Wahlberg, then you will get a grand show of some class acting by both of them.

Micky Ward (Wahlberg) is a boxer from Massachusetts, who is trained by his elder half-brother Dicky (Bale). They live with their mother, Alice (Leo), and seven sisters. Micky’s career is not successful – he is more of a ‘stepping stone’, whom other boxers can defeat. Dicky’s career was once successful, but he is now addicted to cocaine. After Micky’s original opponent is substituted by a much heavier one, Micky loses the fight badly, and, feeling embarrassed, tries to form a relationship with a bartender, Charlene (Adams), whom his family hates. Meanwhile, Dicky is arrested for trying to make illegal money, and while trying to save him, Micky gets his hand broken. How the two brothers make a comeback – Micky, in boxing, and Dicky, in life, forms the rest of the film.

Wahlberg as Micky

This is one of those films where Christian Bale does an amazing ‘transformation’, in both appearance and in weight. At first sight, he hardly looks like the Bale you see in the Batman trilogy. And his performance as Dicky Ward is perhaps the best of his career. While in Cinderella Man, the acting, direction and story were all so powerful that I felt like cheering Russell Crowe in his final fight, here, there was no such feeling – the only thing that made the fight interesting was Bale’s and Wahlberg’s acting. The latter has also done extremely well, and deserved an Oscar nomination. Amy Adams’s acting seemed average, and I couldn’t see anything in it that deserved an Oscar nomination. Bale and Melissa Leo later won the Oscars for Best Supporting Actor and Actress respectively.

Bale as Dicky

The story, like the other two David O. Russell films, generously donates time for building characters and the plot. It is mostly a sports film, which gives more importance to the personal life of the boxer. But to me, the story seemed to move very slowly, and not so smoothly either. As I said before, there is nothing in it that made me also empathise with Wahlberg’s or Bale’s characters. Also, the story is predictable in most of the places, and there are hardly any twists, unlike other O. Russell films.

Adams as Charlene

So while The Fighter works well in terms of acting, I feel that this film is below expectations in most of the other aspects. The story is good, but could have been improved, perhaps with few more twists, although this is based on a real person. But in the end, I was satisfied personally, because I mainly wanted to see why Christian Bale won the Oscar, and I can truly say that he deserved it. Not one of Russell’s best films, but certainly one of the best films of Bale and Wahlberg.

My Rating: 3.5/5
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 91%