THE FIGHTER Review

The FIGHTER is a good film! I had gone in with fairly high expectations, as people all around me were claiming amazing things about it, 89% on rotten tomatoes. I liked it, without loving it!

It's a boxing film, based on a true story. Not my favourite sport or film genre, but the film is of course not just about the boxing. It's essentially a family drama set in the working class suburb of Lowell Massachusetts, not far from Wahlberg's own upbringing, about the 'against all odds' chances of an ordinary bloke. Mickey Ward (Mark Wahlberg) is a boxer, trained by his ex boxer, crack addicted, criminal brother Dickie (Christian Bale) and managed by his overbearing, outspoken bogan mother Alice (Melissa Leo). He is loyal to them when in fact they are not managing his career at all well, setting him up in fights where he is destined to lose. Until he meets Charlene, played by Amy Adams. she sees his potential and right through his selfish loserish family and convinces him to move in other directions, putting her at odds with the family. You can guess how it all ends, I'm sure, no real surprises!

Christian Bale is currently getting much of the accolades for his performance of Dickie, but for me, and to his credit Christian Bale did mention this in his acceptance speech at the Golden Globes, that it is the strength of Mark's quieter performance that lets his shine. And again, Melissa Leo is the one winning awards for her transformation into the scary Alice, it is Amy Adams performance that I preferred.

Christian's performance as Dickie is kinda creepy, although no doubt spot on, when you get a glimpse of the real Dickie at the end of the film. He is a method actor, and I'm betting that his 'dickie' act would have become quite annoying by the end of the shoot! The most uncomfortable I felt whilst watching the film , and the bit that probably detracted from my loving this film, was the sisters. There were 7 sisters, all of whom had the roughest, ugliest, most bogan heads I've ever seen onscreen. They moved in a pack and seemed to do nothing except bitch and moan. Their presence freaked me out to be honest. I have since read that one of them was played by Conan O'brien's sister!!!

The film is directed by David O Russell who has also done The Three Kings (which I absolutely loved) and I Heart Huckabees both with Mark Wahlberg. It was originally to be directed by Darren Aronofsky, but he left the project to do BLACK SWAN. Mark was involved from the beginning and trained constantly for 4 years while the project waited to get the greenlight! Hard work!!! Dickie was originally to be played by Brad Pitt and then Matt Damon, both who had to pull out due to scheduling conflicts.


The story is somewhat predictable, but the performances are definitely worth watching, just make sure to close your eyes every time the 'sisters' hit the screen!!! If you like a good fight film, or you love an award winning performance, go see it!

The sisters