Review: The Fighter

It's Oscar season...and that means the release of a lot of dramas that include redemptive true life stories, period pieces, and examinations of the human psyche in war/the holocaust/other bad times in history. Some of it feels like it was put out there just to win awards, but you also find those films that are truly quality and possibly worthy of said awards.

The Fighter seems like one of those Oscar bait movies at first glance-it's the true life story of a boxer from a small, blue-collar Massachusetts town who overcomes the odds to win a title and be called a hometown hero. Luckily, it falls into the category of a film that is actually good quality. Read on for my review!

The Fighter opens on Dicky Ecklund (Christian Bale) being interviewed on a couch as he describes his boxing career and his infamous knockout of Sugar Ray Leonard as well his squirrel-y style before introducing his brother Mickey (Mark Wahlberg). Dicky has been more or less training Mickey since he was a kid, showing him different techniques and sparking an interest in boxing.

We find out Dicky is called "The Pride of Lowell" (their Massachusetts hometown) and he's somewhat of a legend around town, and that Mickey is looking to pick up the reigns of where his brother left off. So far, Mickey has merely been used as a "stepping stone" fighter, a person pitted against better boxers so they can move up in their weight class. His brother is now a bit of wash up who can only dream to return to his former glory, and despite his own desire to move up in the boxing world, his family insists that Dickey stays his trainer and his mother his manager.

Wahlberg and Bale as Mickey and Dicky

Soon he meets Charlene (Amy Adams), a local bartender who is sweet but tough. She admires Mickey for his ambition, but tells him that he'll never make if he doesn't take an offer to train full time in Vegas and leave his family and their management behind. This sticks him in a hard place-he wants his shot, but his family can't believe he would even think about leaving them behind after all they had done for him.

What follows is less of a boxing movie than the promos let on-but it's certainly not a bad thing. The film focuses on Mickey's relationship with his family, and in particular, his caring but troubled brother and his strict mother. He's torn between a shot at glory and keeping his mother and brother in his regimen. When the boxing scenes do come, they're exciting and well done, due largely to a style employed that makes it look like a TV broadcast, making it feel more real and less cinematic.

The film seems to drag in spots, and it feels a lot longer than and hour and forty-five minutes. Still, the performances are great (especially Bale, who was very impressive), and the story doesn't seem very "fairy tale", like a lot of sport biopics.

Bottom Line: Despite poor pacing in parts and some melodramatic moments, The Fighter works because of great performances all around and exciting boxing scenes, especially the rousing climax.

Grade: B