Thursday, February 17, 2011

The Fighter

I always find it fascinating how, despite personally finding boxing to be completely ridiculous as a sport, boxing movies are more often than not very good. And the latest entry into the genre is no exception.

The Fighter tells the true story of Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg), a down-on-his-luck welterweight boxer struggling to get his "one last chance" at a world championship, and his strained relationship with his older brother Dicky (Christian Bale) - a once-famous boxer who has since fallen into a crack cocaine addiction. There isn't really anything particularly original about the story or its inevitable conclusion, but given that it's based on real-life events you can probably forgive the script writer.

The Fighter features some superb performances, most notably Christian Bale in an uncharacteristically funny and at times heartbreaking role. He acts pretty much everyone else off the screen and absolutely deserves to win the Supporting Actor Oscar (if he doesn't, I'll be angry). In fact, you could almost argue that Bale's role is just as significant as Wahlberg's and could be considered a lead actor, but there you go. Amy Adams and Melissa Leo as Ward's girlfriend and overbearing mother respectively are also excellent. Together the ensemble elevates what is otherwise an entertaining but unremarkable film into something much greater. The boxing scenes are well-executed and put a smile on my face, but ultimately, this film is all about the acting.

VERDICT: Worth seeing for the performances alone.

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