Susan Granger’s review of “The Fighter” (Paramount Pictures)
Families don’t come more dysfunctional than the Wards of Lowell, Massachusetts: a blue-collar Irish clan, headed by a fiercely possessive mother (Melissa Leo) and cowed, compliant father (Jack McGee). Most prominent among their nine grown children are Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale), a former boxer (from a previous marriage) who once fought Sugar Ray Leonard, and Micky (Mark Wahlberg), who’s being groomed as a ‘contender.’
Problem is: Dicky’s addicted to crack, becoming the subject of an HBO documentary. Micky has a hard time realizing that his hard-headed family, rather than helping him, is actually standing between him and achieving his dream because they dwell in a state of denial. Then Micky meets Charlene Fleming (Amy Adams), a college dropout working as a bartender, who clues him in. That honesty earns her the abusive enmity of the Wards – en masse – but turns Micky’s life around, although he’s still dependent on his brother, plaintively pleading “He taught me everything I know. I can’t do it without him.”
Working from a gritty, real-life story, writers Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson and Keith Dorrington, along with director David O. Russell (“Three Kings”) never quite make the Wards likable, believable or engaging. So it’s up to the talented ensemble cast to overcome the chaotic script’s patronizing shortcomings – and they almost do.
Although Wahlberg is a decade older than his character, he’s convincing as the underdog. Christian Bale is outstanding as his volatile older sibling, although he’s actually three years younger than Wahlberg. Credit the make-up department for his bad teeth and bald spot. Melissa Leo scores with imperious assertiveness, while Amy Adams’ endearing sincerity is memorable. While the boxing scenes pack a few punches, they pale in comparison with Sylvester Stallone’s “Rocky,” Martin Scorsese’s “Raging Bull,” Jim Sheridan’s “The Boxer,” even Clint Eastwood’s “Million Dollar Baby.”
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Fighter” is a strung-out, scrappy 7. It’s really a depressing, drug-drenched melodrama disguised as a boxing movie – and you can glimpse the real-life boxing brothers during the end credits.
