There’s a scene in The Fighter, somewhere around the 45 minute mark, where Dickie Eklund (played brilliantly by Christian Bale) is once again going over his fight with Sugar Ray, telling the film crew that’s been following him around for weeks that it was just “too much, too soon” for him. One of his many drug addled friends leans over to the interviewer and asks “What’s this film about again?” The man explains to her that it’s a documentary about crack addiction, so that people can see what it’s really like.
It should be a moment of heartbreak; Dickie has spent most of the film telling anyone that would listen that HBO was documenting his comeback, and here you find out it’s the exact opposite. It should be heartbreaking, and I guess for the audience it might be, but Dickie has always known what they were filming him for. He may not admit it to himself or the people around him, but he knows.
For Dickie Eklund the real moment of heartbreak, the thing that will become the impetus for his sobriety, is when he’s confronted with what his actions have wrought on his family. Specifically his son. He sits in prison, seeing his life boiled down into an hour long segment of bad decisions, a prison full of people laughing at what he’s become. He storms out of the room, almost causing a fight, and in a dark prison hallway he drops to his knees and prays. He never speaks a word, but he doesn’t have to. It’s the most powerful moment of an extremely phenomenal performance.
Bale recently won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor and is a shoe-in for an Oscar nomination, if not a win. Having grown up with a sibling who’s dealt with addiction I was impressed by the nuances he was able to capture, how he was able to embody the larger-than-life charisma that most addicts exude. There’s this false sense of earnestness that they give off, you want to believe whatever they tell you. It really is astounding the way he was able to capture that, and it’s easy to see why Bale’s getting the most buzz for the Fighter.
On the opposite side of that is Mark Wahlberg as Micky Ward, Dickie’s younger half-brother, also a professional boxer. Wahlberg plays Ward so subtle that he’s barely the star of his own film, something I found very fitting. Micky Ward is a man, a boy really, who’s let every person in his life dictate what it is he does. His mother (the almost unrecognizable Melissa Leo) and Brother have steered his career almost down the drain when he meets Charlene (Amy Adams), who seems to somewhat set him free, but as the story progresses we see that she starts to take on the same role. It’s not until the film’ third act that Ward finally stands up to the talking heads in his life, deciding for himself who’ll be standing in his corner.
Like I said, Wahlberg plays it so subtle and understated, allowing his three big supporting actors to stand out in any scenes he shares with them. It’s a role I don’t think he’s getting enough kudos for. He knows that this man cannot be the star of a film if he’s not even in control of his own life. It’s in that final act where Wahlberg shines the brightest, and rightfully so. He makes some excellent choices, ones that benefit the film and not his career.
Melissa Leo is unbelievable as Alice, the mother of the two fighter’s, as well as a coven of daughters. She plays it with a kind of conniving sincerity that’s impossible to find. You believe that she wants what is best for her sons, but at the same time you can see the wheels turning in her head, playing everyone around her like they were pawns in a chess game. And, Amy Adams is beautifully brutal as Charlene. She has some great scenes, but none better than the one she shares with Bale. Bale’s Eklund is so bombastic that you’d think he would overshadow her, but watching as the two stand toe-to-toe with each other you can see just how great Amy Adams can be.
The film’s success doesn’t come solely from the brilliant acting, a lot of it is due to the direction of David O. Russell and a solid screen play, credited to Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson. The mix of family drama with the action a boxing movie demands, a surprising amount of comedy and supporting characters that constantly outshine the lead would usually add up to a film that lacks focus and just doesn’t work. But, Russell reigns it all in and delivers one of the best feel good movies in recent memory. A story of redemption, of never giving up, not on family, not on love and most importantly, not on yourself.
