Rating: 3 out of 5
I'm surprised Martin Scorsese didn't take a whack at directing this film. No, not just because he made Raging Bull. It's a classic Scorsese setup: the relatively sensible and hard-working protagonist is held back by his relationship to an unstable hothead. David O. Russell, director of this patchy sports drama, doesn't seem to know where he's going with it. Scorsese could make it something complete and thoughtful.
The main character in The Fighter is real-life boxer "Irish" Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg). I say "main character," but that might be a bit of a stretch considering I can count all of his important lines on two hands. There seems to be an equal if not greater focus on Micky's half-brother Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale), a once-famous boxer, still famous in their Massachusetts hometown of Lowell, but now nothing more than Micky's crackhead trainer. Bale is one of today's most versatile actors, and as Dicky he is not undeserving of whatever awards he wins, but he is a bona fide scene-stealer. It's more the script's fault than his, but he seems to be butting in on the film. What he's taught his younger brother is important, but is it more important than what Micky does with it?
As we learn, HBO is working on a documentary about Dicky, which he is convinced is about his approaching comeback. Meanwhile, Micky is getting the crap kicked out of him in his fights and has to step up his game or get out. On the verge of quitting, he finds the support he needs in a no-nonsense barmaid named Charlene (Amy Adams). When Dicky is sentenced to several months in prison, Charlene persuades Micky to take a deal with some professional trainers, to the chagrin and then some of his possessive, chain-smoking manager/mother (Melissa Leo, also an award-worthy performance). Micky finds it's hard to balance his work and home life when they're one and the same.
You'd think Mark Wahlberg was cast for his tough looks, but what characterizes him most as Micky is his softer side. In most scenes, he barely has anything to say, and these parts usually happen to be the better ones. Not that Wahlberg isn't a good actor, but for an aspiring champion boxer Micky seems to be a lot weaker and have a lot less self-esteem than everyone else around him. He's not as smart and tough as Charlene and he's not as confident and proud as Dicky. His family treats him like a business asset. This could be a great theme if he didn't try to think for himself as much as he does.
The Fighter isn't a terrible film, just a confused one. There's stuff that happens here and there, and some of it's interesting. The fight scenes are engaging, and the tension between Charlene and Micky's disapproving family (seven sisters) is positively electrifying. But there's no overarching feeling to hold it all together. The supposed hero doesn't grab our attention, so we invest it all in Dicky, and the conclusion comes long before the film's end.
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