I wasn’t looking at Mark Wahlberg when he was training in the boxing ring. I wasn’t watching his gloves either, moving swiftly and smoothly from blow to blow. I was watching Christian Bale playing Wahlberg’s coked out brother as he’s training in the ring along with him. In “The Fighter,” he’s not just bobbing and weaving to block the punches.
Bale portrays Dicky Eklund, the brother of Wahlberg’s Micky Ward. Ward is the fighter, training to win a title, looking for romance and struggling with his own sense of self. Dicky already had his chance. 14 years ago, he knocked down Sugar Ray Leonard and became the pride of Lowell, Massachusetts. Now it’s 1993, and he’s addicted to crack, but still he’s the life of the party.
How could he not be? Watching Bale perform is a thrill. He’s jittery and constantly moving, he’s frail and disheveled, but still he has a smile on his face and love in his heart for everyone in his hometown, including most of all, his brother. Micky is lost without Dicky’s training, and he’s lost without his mother Alice (Melissa Leo) as his manager.
But this relationship is unhealthy. They get him into matches that nearly kill him and end his career. Dicky can’t help but get high even during the most important moments of Micky’s life, and HBO is making a documentary on his addiction, only he thinks it’s about his comeback. And his mother and his six sisters who are always all in the room with her don’t trust anyone outside of the family. Micky reaches out to Charlene (Amy Adams), who’s just as tart and in some ways as controlling as his family. Charlene pushes him to train differently, with new people in his corner, and for a while he gets beat just as badly.
“The Fighter” is really not about boxing but is really about the family dynamic, brilliantly illustrated here by the entire supporting cast. Bale is just inherently entertaining to watch. Amy Adams, possibly the cutest actress in Hollywood, is here sexy and salty, displaying marvelous range. And Melissa Leo embodies the perfect Irish mother. She fits in perfectly with this collection of trashy, identical “Baaston” women playing her daughters.
So the question becomes, where does Mark Wahlberg fit into this equation, and why should we even care about Micky? He’s a fairly dull leading man, but in focusing so heavily on the supporting cast, the film’s purpose takes shape.
How in a group of eccentrics do you learn to stand out, and how do you block out those same nagging eccentrics, who although want the best for you, can do nothing for you?
Wahlberg’s performance is understated, and rightly so. His acting prowess shows in the ring, where the choreographed fights include real hits. Director David O. Russell hired actual boxing cinematographers from HBO to do authentic fight scenes. They may not have the cinematic polish or intensity of “Raging Bull” for instance, but they have a genuine feel to them free of slow motion or super close-ups.
It was a non-factor to me whether or not Ward would actually win the title fight at the end, namely because his real fight is for screen time and our attention. But it’s hard to ignore screen acting as terrific as this, and that’s something worth fighting for.
3 ½ stars
1 thought on “The Fighter”