Review: The Fighter

Set in Lowell, Massachusetts in the early 1990s, Mark Wahlberg stars as real-life junior welterweight boxer “Irish” Micky Ward, who is either too loyal or too dumb to realise that his manager mother Alice (Melissa Leo) is a selfish control freak, and his older half-brother and sparring partner Dicky (Christian Bale) is a crack-addicted has-been and perennial screw-up who is so far gone he doesn’t even realise that the HBO doco being made on him is about crack addiction, not a ‘comeback’ story. Dicky is somewhat of a fading local hero who still claims to have once knocked Sugar Ray Leonard off his feet (he might’ve just slipped, though). They’re no good for him or his career, but things start to turn around when Micky meets tough but loving waitress Charlene (Amy Adams- sporting a tramp stamp), who makes him see his family (and the hangers on) for what they are. He gets a new manager, and local cop Mickey (Mickey O’Keefe, playing himself) becomes his new trainer. Obviously, this does not go down well with Alice, who bitterly resents Charlene’s intrusion into everything she has worked for up until now (Micky’s dad, played by Jack McGee, however, supports Micky). Meanwhile, Dicky gets arrested for impersonating a cop during a robbery and ends up in the slammer.

Some of the problems I have with this 2010 David O. Russell (The amusing “Three Kings”) film are such that on their own, they wouldn’t necessarily drag a film down too much. However, combined as they are here, they make the film pretty much intolerable  to me. The first of these issues is formula. True story or not, this is a predictable and clichéd film that frankly does not add anything much to the sports drama genre. As far as I’m concerned, just because a story is true, it does not give it any more reason to be turned into a film, nor does it mean it will be an enjoyable, profound, or compelling experience. There is nothing in the story of Micky Ward that needed to be told, and director Russell and screenwriters Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy do not give us anything to really distinguish it from any of the boxing films that came before it. It’s a mixture of just about all of them, really, though I will admit that cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema gives the film an authentic-looking 90s-era visage to the boxing scenes.

The other big problem I had with the film that in combination with the boring story, brings the film down, is in terms of the characters. It’s not that they’re lower-class people (so am I, basically), or that they are unlikeable. Aussie films “Animal Kingdom” and “Snowtown” featured some of the absolute worst of humanity and indeed took place in lower socioeconomic areas. But here, the screenwriters and the actors go so far into caricature that almost all of these people end up nauseatingly unpleasant. “Snowtown” and “Animal Kingdom” got away with it because the stories were interesting, and the characters, whilst revolting, had depth to them (or at least some of them). But these people are one-dimensional lowlifes of the first order no matter their social class, especially Melissa Leo’s ghastly, grotesquely selfish family matriarch. Leo earned an Oscar for this hairspray and leopard print outfit ‘performance’, and I’m shocked and appalled. It’s a crass stereotype and Leo grossly overplays it (If this were made in England, Brenda Blethyn would probably get the gig and be similarly grotesque. Thirty or forty years ago, Shelley Winters would’ve shown both of them how it’s really done). I don’t have to like a character necessarily, but Leo’s Alice goes beyond that through not only her over-the-top, phony performance, but the caricatured way the character has also been written. Perhaps this is what the real Alice was like. I don’t care. I hated her, I hated Leo, and had no interest in the character whatsoever. The gaggle of truly horrid, no-hoper daughters and sycophants she was accompanied by were also to my great distaste.

Fellow Oscar winner Christian Bale is to be honest, no better as the drug-addicted loser Dicky. Bale goes for literally eye-popping, lame-arse ‘Method’ acting stylings here (you can see the machinations all over his face), and from moment one, is entirely unconvincing (those closer to the material than me might disagree- I don’t care), thoroughly irritating, and at times, downright infantile. Oh, but he lost weight, so he’s totally dedicated to his craft, let’s give him an Oscar. No, that worked for De Niro, but Christian Bale is no Robert De Niro. In fact, he might just be one of the most overrated actors of his generation. It’s a stupid and jarring performance (bordering on spastic, with all the mugging) playing a frankly pathetic character.

Thankfully, the performances by Oscar nominee Amy Adams and veteran character actor Jack McGee are significantly better. Adams, to be honest, isn’t very well-cast as the tough, slightly trashy girl who by default is the smartest and most selfless person in the film. But Adams does her damn best, and although I might’ve preferred another actress in the role (this might’ve been the one role Taryn Manning or Bijou Phillips might not have sucked in), the immensely talented and charismatic Adams gives a solid, sexy turn with easily the most 3D character in the film. McGee doesn’t have nearly enough scenes, but he’s perfectly cast as the supportive (but somewhat passive) blue-collar dad, who prefers to stay out of arguments wherever possible.

Mark Wahlberg, whose minimalist acting style (I’m being charitable) isn’t to my liking, plays the lead role presumably as written. It’s not really Wahlberg’s fault that the lead character in this film acts like he’d rather be a Foley Artist. I understand that Micky was meant to be a comparatively quieter, decent-hearted, unassuming type. But it’s really hard to watch this guy continually put up with his terrible family whom he should’ve kicked to the curb a long time ago (Apparently in the years after the events of this film, even Dicky went back to being a screw-up). It’s hard to muster up much sympathy for a guy with such stupid familial loyalty. Family is important, but not everyone’s family is good for them. Micky’s family, on evidence here (aside from his dad), do not deserve him, nor do they ever truly look out for him. His mother in particular, is a piece of trash who cares about his success only so she can claim to have been the reason for it. What an awful human being (here, not necessarily in real-life. She might’ve been a lot more complex than this film presents her as). But because Micky is so damn passive, it almost feels like outside of the moments from bell to bell, Micky’s life is never dictated by himself. He never seems capable of making his own damn decisions. That’s not so fun to watch.

Overall, two solid performances aren’t nearly enough to make this film palatable to me. I found it dramatically unenlightening, and severely off-putting. I’m shocked at the accolades that have been thrown this film’s way. It’s totally undeserving of such praise, and a thoroughly ordinary film. Sometimes, true stories don’t need to be told. Don’t be fooled by the name Darren Aronofsky listed as producer, this ain’t no “Wrestler”. It ain’t even a contender.

Rating: C