Film Review: The Fighter

Written by Barnes Wheeler

            I was lucky enough to attend a pre-screening for the latest outing from the volatile director David O. Russell, charting the rise of boxer Mickey Ward as he deals with a crack addicted ‘could’a been’ brother and controlling mother who dotes on his waste-of-space sibling. An HBO documentary is our way in, as a camera crew follows Dickie around in what he thinks is a movie charting his comeback, but in reality is about the perils of drug addiction. The “Pride of Lowell” who once knocked down (but not out) Sugar Ray Leonard, is delusional in his grasp for the spotlight, a fantasy stoked by his mother’s praise and his position as somewhat of a novelty in his small town.

Mark Wahlberg brings his best to this performance; think his Oscar nominated turn in “The Departed” and try to forget the Razzie laden “The Happening”. He loses out, however, when he squares off against the Batman himself, overshadowed by Bale’s always-impressive method approach to his work as he once again sheds the Dark Knight muscle to play the gaunt, drugged addled Dickie. Credit must be paid too to Melissa Leo, the mother of the pair and would-be manager. Constantly putting Dickie first, willfully ignoring his crack addiction and never realizing that her other son might also need her support. There is not a lot of room for Wahlberg to give a show-stopping performance as much like his character, until the latter part of the film he is constantly in the shadow of Bale and Leo, who deliver such overbearing figures that Wahlberg’s role revels in a subtly that can be lost next to their antics.