The Fighter hit theaters yesterday, and I must say I was pleasantly surprised. The film centers on Mickey Ward, a boxer from Massachusetts in the twilight of his career, and his dysfunctional family’s affect on his performance. With an overbearing mother as his manager, and an older brother who was once a boxing star but now a crack addict, Mickey struggles to make decisions that leave his family behind as he advances his career.
The most recent boxing movies that come to mind are Million Dollar Baby and Cinderella Man. Both were the quintessential sports movies, which relied heavily on the boxing matches to entertain the audience and get the adrenaline pumping. The Fighter however paid closer attention to drama surrounding the characters, than on the actual fight sequences.
Mark Wahlberg played Mark Wahlberg, but it’s admirable how much he committed to make the physical transformation needed to portray a boxer. As good as he was, Wahlberg was overshadowed by Christian Bale. As Bale did for The Machinist and the Batman movies, he pulled out all the stops to become Mickey’s aging crack addict brother, Dickey. The thinning of the hair and the gaunt appearance, paired with the manic behavior, at first Bale’s acting seemed a bit over the top. However, there’s a brief interview with the real life Mickey and Dickey at the end of the film and it showed just how spot on Bale's performance was. He’s sure to be a contender for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar.
