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Just when I thought it was safe to assume that everything about boxing had been done, every Round Girl had carried her last banner, every bloody nose had smeared yet another canvas, every motivated stair-climbing training session had reached its last apex...here comes a new and fresh approach, which taught me, what was old can indeed be new again.
The Fighter is a different kind of boxing movie - this would be the boxing movie (albeit with a lot more staggering drama) if it were to be directed by, let's say...Francis Ford Coppola of The Godfather series. Here we have a boxing movie, that allows us to root for more than just the boxer. It is about a family, and how boxing itself, has become the protagonist driving a wedge into their seemingly perfectly-dysfunctional world. The hero tries to get out, but they keep pulling him back in, until an outside love interest comes in and shows him a way to lead his own path. It is about an underlying sibling rivalry and loyalty that is tested to its limits. It is about the boxing ring of everyone's life, and how they all fight each day to keep it.
The Fighter is about mainly about two brothers - as the opening sequence will tell you: The older brother Dicky (Christian Bale), was once a great fighter, and HBO is doing a series about him - but not as being a could-be legend who once knocked out Sugar Ray Leonard, but as a present crack-addict and how this drug has carried him (and anyone) down a rabbit hole of destruction. He however, in his Alice-of-Wonderland mind, believes that HBO is there to film his remarkable (and very unlikely) comeback into the ring of boxing. Next to him is his younger brother, whom he trains, and has hopes that he will bring not only himself redemption, but that of his whole family, as the next greatest boxer if the Century; Micky (Mark Wahlberg), who is being promoted by his mother Alice (Melissa Leo), who constantly miss-matches his fight bookings with people that can beat her son to a pulp but still leave him standing long enough to cash the check.
Then comes Charlene (Amy Adams), a barmaid with a bar-mouth and pretty eyes, who allows Micky to take her on a date, and immediately notices that it is not the fights in the ring he has to beat; his biggest competitors is his family. She sees his potential, if only he can get him away from them (and a roster of crazy sisters who look like the rejects from GLEE if it were filmed in the 80's).
And so the fighting begins...
Who Loves Ya Baby |
Micky is the string that pulls at this family, and the fighting scenes are us rooting less for the fights, and more for his freedom. We want him to win just because it will take him away from his addiction: his family. This is especially so for his mother Alice - and although Melissa Leo is getting a lot of praise for her portrait, and it is well deserved, I felt it paled in comparison with her colleague's. We feel her pain in dealing with this family, and her addiction with trying to make the dysfunction work - because this dysfunction gives her purpose, but she begins to fade into the background as the film ends.
The pacing of The Fighter is very captivating, and the only downside to all of this is the performance by Mark Wahlberg, who's character is dumbed down to a low simmer, and perhaps he should be, because in this family of estrogen and drama, maybe it is best to just disappear. Mark looks like a boxer, and so we believe him, and we admire his restraint, but we are left with concern that Charlene in time will be running his life as much as his present family does.
I was left with a very good feeling at the end of this movie, because it was more than I had expected, and delivered many victories. It showed me that when it comes to family - when one wins, we all win; whether we realize it or not.