REVIEW: The Fighter

AGAINST THE ODDS

David O Russell's The Fighter isn't really a boxing movie at all, because there's little thrill and anticipation about the actual matches. Nor is it about its underdog protagonist and welterweight champion Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) and his rocky road to success. It is, instead, about two unlikely antagonists, his trainer, brother Dick Ecklund (Christian Bale) and manager, mother Alice (Melissa Leo), who, while having his best interest at heart, are driven by their flawed personalities to actually jeopardise his chances. And yet, they love him, and he them, nearly to the peril of his lifelong ambition.

Tarty Alice (of gutter mouth, bad, ill-fitting clothes and untamed ambition) has a soft spot for drug-addled one-time boxer Dickie, whose only claim to fame is he may once have knocked out Sugar Ray Leonard -- although there's also speculation that the champion may in fact have slipped. She also has seven daughters who apparently never went to college, never got married and are found sitting around at home smoking their lungs out and playing referee to the domestic drama involving their mother, her present husband and Micky's father George, and the two brothers. Often they are on the mother's side because she's the hand that feeds them and clearly, she's not open to any kind of dissent.   

Dickie, who opens the film with an interview for a HBO documentary -- which he'd have us believe is about his glorious and imminent comeback, but is really about crack addiction and its devastating impact on a once-promising boxer -- is at the film's core. In that sense, this story belongs to Dickie's triumph over his pathetic circumstances and volatile personality, rather than Micky's of the title. The sheer physicality of Bale's performance as a fast-talking, loose cannon with sunken eyes, gaunt face and an edge of craze in his being, is astonishing. It's like a punch in the gut that takes your breath away. He makes you feel for this character even when you're tempted to slap him to his senses as he moves from one misdemeanour to the next.

Wahlberg's Micky, on the other hand, is deceptively docile. He's quiet, collected and focussed, even when it seems almost impossible to remain so in the face of his outlandish family. He falls for a bar girl, Charlene (Amy Adams), who weans him away from their disruptive influence and puts him back on track. Much to the annoyance of Alice who feels betrayed and claws back in desperation. Between this motley group, getting Micky to train and into the ring itself is a challenge. Winning seems like a distant, foolish dream.

But his triumph isn't possible without Dickie. And so the wasted brother must redeem himself somehow, before the boxer can serve the knock-out on his opponents. The Fighter's greatest accomplishment is that even though we already know where its going to end, there's so much uncertainty about the proceedings, it keeps you hooked to your chair for two hours. And its only when Bale signs off with a smile and exits the frame that you can breathe easy.

The question that rankles then is, if Dickie is the film's soul, and Bale gets so much screen time, why on earth didn't he get a Best Actor nomination alongside Wahlberg?

As for Leo, give her the trophy straightaway!

Comments

[Deepa Deosthalee]

Thanks Neeraj. Bale's performance has to rank amongst the best ever seen on screen. I was stunned and awed just watching him and didn't care much about what else was happening. :)

[Neeraj]

Very nice review Deepa. I was anticipating something on the lines of Cinderella Man. So took some time to settle in and was almost repelled by what I saw in the first few minutes, thanks to the performance by Christian Bale. Excellent line i.e. "He makes you feel for this character even when you're tempted to slap him to his senses as he moves from one misdemeanour to the next." Says it all .... this is how I felt about it most of the time. It will be nice to see it again but will need to gather some courage to do it soon.