Well-acted 'Fighter' goes the distance
David O. Russell's energized domestic drama “The Fighter” would be more accurately titled “The Fighters,” because it's not really about a single pugilist, but an entire Massachusetts family of no-nonsense scrappers and offensive hitters.
If anything, Mark Wahlberg's titular fighter Micky Ward is the least interesting character in the lineup.
An emaciated Christian Bale mops the boxing ring floor with him as Ward's half-brother and trainer, Dicky Ecklund, an ingratiatingly entertaining guy fighting his own rounds with alcohol and crack addiction. (Bale dropped significant weight for the role, popped in some bad teeth and receded his hairline for his frightening and effective transformation.)
The perky Amy Adams packs on a few pounds and a whole new street attitude as Micky's girlfriend Charlene, a tough bartender who doesn't need a man to fight her battles.
Then there's the amazing Melissa Leo. who almost didn't take the role of Micky's iron-willed manager/mother Alice. Leo fleshes out the one-note part into an entire symphony of control, pride, manipulation and guilt.
The fact-based “Fighter” is barely fueled by plot, which loosely follows Micky from his modest beginnings as a promising welterweight into his eventual victory in the ring, an ideal stopping point for any boxing motion picture.
Russell's drama scripted by Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson shows us enough boxing sequences to feed our expectations, but is far more interested in the dynamics of its characters outside the ring.
That's where the best fights are to be had.
Especially when plucky Charlene has the moxie to be Micky's mouthpiece and challenge Alice's control over his career in full presence of Micky's seven lethally loyal sisters, all of whom would fit right in to the exploitation movie “Switchblade Sisters.”
Wahlberg's tentative, almost passive portrait of Micky runs contrary to the usual charismatic persona established by Robert De Niro's Jake “Raging Bull” LaMotta or Sylvester Stallone's “Rocky.”
That doesn't matter here. Wahlberg's low-key performance allows Bale's more colorful Dicky to be the outgoing, showy part. As “The Fighter” opens, an HBO crew is shooting Dicky for a documentary series “America Undercover.”
It's Dicky who actually drives this story, for he's the brother with the broken dreams and addiction struggles who must learn to set aside his ego, disappointments and resentments to serve the greater good of family as messed up and dysfunctional as it may be.
The heart of this movie belongs to Dicky, given to reliving moments of greatness during a drug-induced stupor where he re-enacts his encounter with the legendary Sugar Ray Leonard.
In this movie, there's no rage. No bull.
Just a fitful story of a blue-collar family of fighters willing to go the distance.
“The Fighter”
Rating: ★★★½
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Melissa Leo, Amy Adams
Directed by: David O. Russell
Other: A Paramount Pictures release. Rated R for drug use, language, sexual situations, violence. 114 minutes