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.