The Fighter movie trailer

Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale portray brothers Micky Wardand Dicky Eklund. The screenplay, by Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson, is based on the real-life pugilists who hail from Lowell, Mass., a once- robust textile center.

The Fighter cast and crew

Directed by
David O. Russell

Mark Wahlberg
 
Christian Bale
 
Melissa Leo
 
Mickey O'Keefe  

Jack McGee  

Melissa McMeekin  

Bianca Hunter  

Erica McDermott
 
Jill Quigg  

Dendrie Taylor
 
Kate B. O'Brien  

Jenna Lamia

Frank Renzulli  

The Fighter ovierview

It's audacious, it's fun, it's rowdy, and it's just twisted enough to always be interesting. Beyond that, it's one of the year's best acting showcases and likely to grab multiple Oscar nominations.Ostensibly this is a boxing film, but the fighting involved goes way beyond the ring. In fact, aside from one early, brutal beating, most of the boxing is in the film's final third.But the fighting never stops. Wife fighting husband, brother fighting brother, addict fighting drugs, girlfriend smashing in a sister's nose — this is not what you'd call a calm film.

"The Fighter" is the real-life story of the boxer "Irish" Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg, making it look easy as always), product of a low-rent Boston suburb. As the film begins in the mid-'80s he's 31 years old and his career is on the wane.That's because his trainer is his constantly tardy, crack-addicted brother, Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale), himself a former boxer, and his manager is his mother Alice (Melissa Leo), who's so in need of money she'd put Micky in the ring with a gorilla if it paid.

Also standing in Micky's corner while blocking it are his seven big-haired sisters, none of whom seems to have jobs or lives beyond the family living room, and Alice's beleaguered husband George (Jack McGee).
Micky's a bundle of bruises and bad decisions when Charlene (Amy Adams) comes into his life. A former athlete, college dropout and working bartender, it doesn't take Charlene long to see Alice and Dicky are taking advantage of Micky at the same time they're squandering his talent.
Micky's on the verge of quitting when Charlene, who is instantly hated by Micky's entire family, aside from George, convinces him to cut Dicky and Alice out of the equation. Helping to make that decision easier is Dicky's bust for amateur pimping.

So Dicky goes off to jail, and Micky goes on to win some fights. But even though his priorities are scrambled much of the time, Dicky does know boxing, and he knows how to help Micky win. Despite all the dysfunction, this family cannot be torn apart.The first thing that comes at you in this movie — and it comes right at you — is Bale's performance as Dicky. Gaunt with a bald spot on the back of his head, a jumble of nerves and bravado, Dicky is immediately larger and louder than life. At first it seems too obvious, but then you realize the guy is a crack addict, and Bale paints him with tones both comic and poignant.

Every bit as strong are Leo and Adams. How the princess from "Enchanted" got such a mouth on her is anybody's guess, but Adams shows here she's more than just delightful: She's a true actress.
Leo has been a fine actress for years, but she's never been given a character like this. Alice is tough and self-absorbed and a brute, but she's also surprisingly tender at times. There's complexity behind that cloud of cigarette smoke.Director David O. Russell doesn't get out much — his last film was the spacey "I Heart Huckabees" in 2004, and his best, "Three Kings," was five years before that. But with "The Fighter," he has pulled together a rumble of disparate elements — athletics, drug addiction, family dysfunction, redemption, romance — and fixed them with a crazy energy that permeates the film.

At the center of all this is Wahlberg, who has been involved with this film since 2005. Wahlberg knows Micky is the steady rock in the film and lets his co-stars have their flourishes while he takes the body punches. He is the embodiment of the adage that if you want to be a great actor don't ever let anyone catch you doing it.

Grand entertainment — inspirational, funny, dazzling and surprising — "The Fighter" is one of the year's best.

The Fighter review

Surviving a barrage of blows and waiting patiently to begin a counterattack is a recurring theme in "The Fighter." And we're not talking about a strategy at work only in the boxing ring once the bell sounds.
Yes, the sweet science gets its due in director David O. Russell's bruising — and at times, wincingly amusing — boxing drama. But so does the bittersweet mystery of familial boundaries.
"The Fighter" is so muscularly and tenderly good because it trains its eye on the matches that take place between kin. It deals with both authentic pride and the hubris that comes from reflected glory — and it traces the weird border between the two.
Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale portray brothers Micky Wardand Dicky Eklund. The screenplay, by Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson, is based on the real-life pugilists who hail from Lowell, Mass., a once- robust textile center.
"The Fighter" opens in that hardscrabble burg in 1993. Dicky (Bale) sits on a couch nattering into a camera. A few minutes into his monologue, quieter brother Micky joins him.
Dicky is a live wire in need of grounding. An HBO camera crew is shooting a documentary about the former boxer, who became "The Pride of Lowell" when he bested Sugar Ray Leonard in a match. He believes they're there to cover his comeback.

All we have to do is look at Dicky's bad teeth, his glazed eyes, his loss of muscle mass, to know there's no boxing-ring revival in store. Is Dicky delusional? Is he on crack? Why, yes he is. At 23, Eklund started smoking rock cocaine.
"The Fighter" doesn't obsess over dazzling footwork or fluid bobbing and weaving. But if Wahlberg's depiction of Micky is accurate — and Ward has said as much — the boxer took a lot of hits. He did not float like a butterfly, though he did do more than sting with a helluva left hook.
When we meet Micky, though, his role is mostly that of the overshadowed brother of Dicky and short-shrifted son of Alice (Melissa Leo), even though he's the only boxer in the family with any prospects.
Alice manages him. Dicky trains him. It's more complicated than a conflict of interest but just as dangerous. At a match in Vegas, Micky gets pounded. Alice and Dicky are impervious to his shame.
But Micky has saner people in his corner. Amy Adams is Charlene, a bartender with insight into how damaging Micky's family is to his plans. A college dropout, she also knows how easily dreams can be deferred.O'Keefe is the scrappy Irish cop who helps train Micky and believes the boxer must cut his ties with Dicky and Alice if he hopes to have a career. He's portrayed by Mickey O'Keefe, the actual Lowell policeman who trained Ward.
Leo is frightfully good as Alice. We mean she scares us. She's manipulative and protective. She's an enabler. She's judgmental. She can growl or weep on a dime.In addition to enlisting O'Keefe, Russell cast some of the Ward Eklund sisters to play themselves. Sitting in Alice's home with beers, cigs and too much time on their hands, they come off as some unholy alliance, a coven. Much of the film's biting humor comes during faceoffs between Micky's sisters, his mother and Charlene. To her credit, Charlene lands a number of sharp punch lines.Once again, Bale has taken a physical transformation seriously. He disappears into Dick Eklund's crack-ravaged physique and addict psyche.But don't think that this means Bale's fierce energy eclipses Wahlberg's determined work. Long attached to the project and a producer on the film, Wahlberg is an eager sparring partner.

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