The Fighter (2010)

Directed by: David O. Russell | 114 minutes | biography, drama, sports | Actors: Christian Bale, Mark Wahlberg, Amy Adams, Melissa Leo, Robert Wahlberg, Jack McGee, Dendrie Taylor, Jenna Lamia, Bianca Hunter, Chanty Sok, Erica McDermott, Sean Patrick Doherty, Caitlin Dwyer, Salvatore Santone, Jackson Nicoll, Anthony Molinari , Sue Costello, Hunter Wilichoskic

Boxing as a metaphor for life; we saw it before in ‘Rocky’ (1976). A boy from a disadvantaged background who pursues the American Dream, who has the courage to step into the ring to do what he does best: boxing. He dares to take blows, in fact he does nothing else his whole life. ‘The Fighter’ (2010) by director David O. Russell elaborates on this theme. The film is based on the true life story of boxing champion ‘Irish’ Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg), who all his life had to fight (not so literally but mostly figuratively) against his older half-brother Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale), who had a fairly successful career as a boxer himself and is still famous in their hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts, for the one time he took down the great Sugar Ray Leonard. Dicky knows deep down that Leonard probably tripped and fell himself, but he enjoys the respect he gets too much to dispel that myth.

‘The Fighter’ is set in the early 1990s. Dicky’s heyday is now far behind him. He is nearly forty and spends his days coaching his younger brother and smoking crack. An HBO camera crew follows him closely for a documentary about athletes who have fallen into disarray after their active careers. However, Dicky tells everyone that a movie is being made about his – for years – imminent comeback in the ring. Just when you think Dicky is the central character in ‘The Fighter’, the focus shifts to his younger brother Micky. He finds himself sandwiched between his deranged and addicted brother, to whom he is unwittingly always compared, and his authoritarian mother Alice (Melissa Leo), who acts as his manager. She sends him into the ring to be beaten to a pulp, purely to collect the bounty. A meeting with the plucky barmaid Charlene (Amy Adams) wakes him up: why is he so messed around? Encouraged by his new girlfriend, Micky tries to break away from his family. He hires a different coach and manager and tries to make it on his own in the boxing world. However, Dicky, his seven (!) half-sisters and Alice are not easily put aside.

Micky Ward’s life story is set on the fringe of society. The unsightly town of Lowell is bursting with deprived areas, where poverty, addiction and unrest reign. No wonder Alice Ward’s sons try to work their way up into society through sport. The dingy, gray world in which they live is skillfully portrayed by the Dutch cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema (‘Let the Right One In’, 2008). Boxing scenes are actually indispensable in films like this one, but in ‘The Fighter’ they are less prominent than in ‘Rocky’. The fights are certainly delivered convincingly, but seem of minor importance. The drama in family relationships is central here. That makes the film more layered than many other boxing films. The fact that the predictability increases a bit towards the end (what do you want with a true story?), does not detract from the fact that ‘The Fighter’ forms a compelling whole. The heroism that drips from the last fifteen minutes is just as much a part of boxing as the tragedy we were able to watch earlier.

‘The Fighter’ relies heavily on the acting performances and they are very impressive. Christian Bale steals the show with his intense portrayal of the outgoing, nervous Dicky. Having previously undergone a transformation for his roles in ‘The Machinist’ (2004) and ‘Rescue Dawn’ (2006), he has once again gone deep to make his role as convincing as possible. He lost pounds and even had his hair thinned to look like the real Dicky Eklund. In the shadow of the Oscar-nominated Bale’s tour de force, Mark Wahlberg seems a bit shaky. However, if you look closely, you will see that he also puts in a hell of a performance. More subdued, introverted and more subtle than Bale, but just as convincing, he forms the heart and soul of the film. We have never seen Wahlberg – himself from a similar background as Ward – better. He deserved an Oscar nomination for it. That honor fell to Amy Adams and Melisse Leo. Certainly the one for the experienced Leo is more than justified, but Adams also shows what she is capable of. She seems to have finally shaken off her Disney image.

Around David O. Russell (‘Three Kings’, 1999) , has been quiet since 2004’s ‘I Heart Huckabees’. Little did we know that he was working on the best film of his career so far. Although ‘The Fighter’ follows the well-known pattern of the sports film and works towards a heroic climax, the road there is powerful and compelling. Thanks to the excellent acting, which has rightly been praised, ‘The Fighter’ can compete in intensity with genre toppers such as ‘Raging Bull’ (1980) and ‘Million Dollar Baby’ (2004).