Sensational Fighter a Human Story that Rings True
Dicky Ecklund (Christian Bale) was once the pride of Lowell, Massachusetts. Back in the day he went toe-to-toe with the great Sugar Ray Leonard, even knocking him down becoming one of the few to be able to admit to such an achievement. But times have not been good for the formerly promising pugilist, and now pushing into his 40’s and dealing with a major league drug habit he’s more screw-up than role model at this point in his life.
Christian Bale and Mark Walhberg in The Fighter © Paramount Pictures
Yet his younger half-brother, 31-year-old pro boxer “Irish” Mickey Ward (Mark Wahlberg), still loves and trusts him. While his flamboyant and headstrong mother Alice (Melissa Leo) takes charge as his manager, Dicky is his trainer and the one he listens to as far as strategies both in and out of the ring are concerned.
After a devastating loss leaves him battered and bruised beyond recognition, Mickey suddenly finds himself questioning whether his blind faith and trust have been misplaced. Dicky and Alice led him into a bout he should never have been involved in, and with the iron-willed urging of his headstrong girlfriend Charlene Fleming (Amy Adams) and the advice of family friend Mickey O’Keefe (playing himself) he decides to go his own way and pursue what remains of his boxing career on his own.
Based on a true story, it isn’t what goes on inside the ring that makes The Fighter such an astonishing and remarkable motion picture. While the boxing is phenomenal, breathlessly staged to the point there were times I could swear I felt Mickey's devastating left hook slam into my jaw, it is the twisted and complex family drama that makes this film such an astonishing piece of work.
Credit goes to both Wahlberg’s persistence in getting this film made (he’s been at it for years) and in director David O. Russell (Three Kings, I Heart Huckabees) for stripping the script to its barest bones in order to make sure the human story took center stage. This is a tale of a family in crisis, dealing with complicated issues the likes of which everyone anywhere can relate to. This is a picture that cuts right to heart bearing the souls of its characters for all to see, no one totally clean, no one completely innocent, all with flaws and faults that they must work through in order for success to blossom.
Much like he’s done before (most notably in The Machinist), Bale completely transforms himself to an almost recognizable degree in order to play the drug-addled Dicky. But this isn’t just a series of ticks and shrugs, of odd facial expressions and physical quirks, this is instead a performance of harrowing brilliance that mines depths and goes to corners that stick lumps in your throat and makes you gasp for air. While Mickey is the one who will ultimately get the title shot, it is Dicky’s redemption and recovery to a place back in the world of the living that gives The Fighter its resonance, Bale’s willingness to strip himself bare making their fracturing as well as their ultimate resurrection and reunion all the more authentic.
But while he is the obvious standout, everyone here gives performances they should list near the tops of the respective resumes, especially Wahlberg. While I’ve always liked him when he’s been part of an ensemble and not the lead, for maybe the first time the actor rises to the occasion giving the film and everyone else within it a solid base from which to work around. He is the center to which all others revolve, Wahlberg grounding things in a way that allows them to shine while also giving him a spotlight that isn’t unnatural or distracting in any way.
It’s hard not to look at The Fighter and not want to compare it to The Town. While the pair's subject matter is vastly different, both are still working from an extremely similar base of operations. The story of Mickey Ward isn’t full of a lot of surprises, this real-life Rocky building to a conclusion that’s fairly well known, even amongst the most casual sports fan. As for Ben Affleck’s opus of bank robbers and the cops eager to catch them, anyone who’s seen a crime flick over the past 80 or so years (or have at least recently watched Michael Mann’s Heat) knew were that one was going long before the climax, not a one of its twists or turns unexpected or unforeseen.
So why am I so over the moon for one while the other leaves me cold and slightly bewildered by its success? The simple truth is that Russell, Wahlberg and company made me feel like I was standing on the streets of Lowell, while for all of Affleck’s flash and style his Boston milieu never came to life for me like I kept hoping it would. With The Fighter I was dealing with flesh and blood people who lived, breathed and wept in a way that penetrated my heart, whereas in The Town, as good as the cast was I never once believed any of the principals were nothing more than cinematic clichés comes to life. One film has characters, the other has caricatures, and as skillfully as both are constructed that’s why one filled my eyes with tears while the other sent me out of the theatre exasperated.
I’m not going to say The Fighter changed my life. I’m not going to say it offered up anything I was hoping for beforehand. What I will say is that it is a damn fine motion picture made with exacting skill by Russell and acted to perfection by Bale, Adams, Leo, Wahlberg and all the rest. It is a movie where the authenticity of its characters oozed off the screen, where every emotional high, low and in-between hit home with a scarring truth that often left me dazzled and dazed. This is what the human drama can look like, depicted here in all its ugly, complicated, brutal, redemptive and, yes, beautiful glory, making this true story of a boxer’s rise to triumph a can’t miss bout I can’t help but cheer.
Film Rating: êêê1/2 (out of 4)
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