The best and worst thing I can say about David O. Russell's ""The Fighter"" is that it is just like every other underdog story you've ever seen. Boxing movies are nothing like a box of chocolates – you always know exactly what you're going to get. Luckily, what you get tastes really good.
Mark Wahlberg plays ""Irish"" Micky Ward, a quiet but driven boxer trying to make a living in Lowell, Mass. His mother is his manager, his brother is his trainer and his entire family has placed all of their broken hopes and dreams on his unlikely success. Queue the inspirational ups, heartbreaking downs, training montages and boxing sequences.
The film is anchored by two main performances. First, there's Wahlberg's as Ward. Wahlberg hasn't successfully carried a film in a lead role since ""Boogie Nights"" and even then he had P.T. Anderson and a stellar supporting cast to lean on. ""The Fighter"" is weakest when Wahlberg is forced to carry it. It's hard to tell if his performance is subtle or just bland but it's easy to lean towards the latter because Wahlberg's history has shown that he is often unable to convince the audience he cares. But it's hard to criticize such a quiet performance when he's surrounded by some of the most colorful and terrifying creatures on the screen this year.
Micky Ward's family is filled with noticeable roles, some of which work while others do not. His mom (Melissa Leo) is straight out of a Lifetime movie and the idea that Ward's dad (Jack McGee) loves her is unbelievable and left completely unexplored. The sisters are basically a pack of Snookie-inspired gremlins, snarling in the corner of the frame. They are the key to the film's humor, which derives from the ""Jersey Shore"" factor of the audience being able to laugh at just how horrible and strange these people can act. But despite how much fun the dysfunctional family is to watch, they're not nearly as interesting or loveable as the film's second key role.
Christian Bale's performance as Micky's brother Dicky is without a doubt the most exciting part of the ""The Fighter"". Bale has been slightly bland lately in summer blockbusters like ""Public Enemies"" and the Batman franchise, so his return to more intriguing material is refreshing. The ""wild card best friend who unintentionally drags the protagonist down"" role has been done before and is shameless Oscar bait, yet Bale still pulls it off. He is either one of the most dedicated actors out there or he just likes torturing himself, because he is completely convincing as a 150-pound crack addict. His struggle with drug addiction, and more importantly with his pride, is infinitely more interesting than whatever Wahlberg's character is going through.
Since the film is about brotherhood, you'd think Russell would have considered giving the two actors split screen time or maybe even reversed it so that Bale was the lead. Of course, it's standard boxing movie procedure that the boxer be the center of the film but isn't an independent filmmaker like Russell the perfect guy to try something different? In this particular story, the guy in the corner's journey is much more interesting than that of the guy at the center of the ring, so it's hard not to fantasize about what a more adventurous version of the film could have been.
Despite the film's few limited flirtations with mediocrity, Russell has essentially created a good crowd pleaser. The film is dipped in a realism that makes it stand out from ""Rocky"" procedurals, but also has no problem playing up the cinematic joy of watching David take on Goliath. The journey of ""The Fighter"" has been told countless times but some stories are so intimately tied to the human spirit they can be told over and over again simply because we need to be reminded of their importance every once in awhile.
