By: Adam D. Dolce


On a rating scale from Hayden Christensen to Meryl Streep, David O. Russell’s The Fighter ranks around a David Koechner.  It’s good – at times seemingly great – but ultimately suffers from three distinct things: Soft Mark triumphs over Hard Mark; the trailer trash undermines the boxing; and Micky Ward’s most famous fight[s] (with Arturo Gotti) are mentioned as a closing footnote.

Christian “The Crack Knight” Bale almost saves the day with prolific acting chops alone, but it’s simply not enough to overcome the perils of having dueling narratives in a movie like this.

 

Mark Wahlberg plays Ward – the Irish boxer from Lowell, MA – who finds himself [mis]managed by his mom, seven sisters, and his trainer/step-brother, Dicky Eklund (played by Bale).  Ultimately, after a series of disappointments and failures, Ward meets his “Game Changer” by way of Amy Adams (“Charlene”) who, albeit a drink slinger in a seedy Lowell bar, has the sense to see Mickey can fight with the best of them if loosened of his familial baggage.

On this, I noted the film suffers from Soft Mark triumphing over Hard Mark.  Wahlberg has two speeds and you can usually tell them apart by the tone of his voice.  In The Fighter, he needed both in equal measures.  If he’s soft-spoken, his inflection comparable to a kid trying to convince his mom he really needs a new bike, the movie cannot be about something tough and gritty.  Rock Star didn’t work, in part, because it was Soft Mark trying to play an 80’s hair-band star (which would otherwise require Hard Mark but Wahlberg made some poor acting choices in this one).  Contrast with The Departed, an example of Hard Mark, and you’ll find a character cold, calculated, and menacing.  Wahlberg’s best movies are gauged by his voice and in The Fighter we hear one louder (well, softer) than the other.

Ultimately Bale is the reason to watch the movie.  He plays Dicky as a pathetic, crack-addicted, Uncle Rico-esque, “I once fought Sugar Ray” anti-hero who loves his toddler son, and really wants to do right by his mom and brother but simply can’t shake his demons.  It’s a performance that will garner an Oscar nomination.

The fight scenes are real and brutal, but Ward’s white-trashy roots distracted from the overall boxing narrative.  And no allusions to Gotti – the man Ward fought three times of which two were Ring Magazine’s Fight(s) of the Year – is purely criminal.