The Fighter

The Fighter

A Film Review by: David Ramirez

★★★★/★★★★

Calling "The Fighter" just another boxing movie would be an insult not only to the movie, but to the film makers, cast and The Ward Brothers' ( who the film is based on). "The Fighter" is not only a movie about a true underdog, "Irish" Micky Ward, but also about his brother Dicky and more often then not his difuctional family.


Mickey Ward (Wahlberg) is following in his brother Dicky's (Bale) footsteps and is trying to make a name for himself as a boxer. Dicky has been giving Mickey advice and helping Mickey train for as long as they can both remember while their mother Alice (Leo) has been acting as his manager the entire time. Mickey knows it's time for a change if he expects to make a serious impact in the boxing world, but a crack addicted brother and a mom who thinks she's helping his career when she's really hurting it have both been holding him back for far too long. So when Charlene (Adams) and Mickey become an item and Dicky winds up in prison, Mickey makes the hardest decision of his life and keeps fighting with new management in tow and seemingly pushes his family out. As Mickey's mother tries to wrap her head around her son replacing her as manager, all hell breaks loose once Dicky gets out of prison. As the date for the most important fight in Mickey's career fast approaches, will he have the support of his family or has everything already fallen apart past the point of being repaired?


In the history of cinema you will always here that the great actors became the charictors they were portraying on screen, well Mark Walhberg has done just that in his portrale of Micky Ward. Mark Wahlberg's thick Boston accent and at time silent daminer not only fits the charictor but is also an acurate portale of Micky Ward. Walhberg has spent a lot of time training for the fighter and all that time has truly paid off as he truly became not only a good boxer but he became Micky Ward.

The real gem of the film is Christian Bale though. Bale plays the motor mouth Dicky Ward to perfection. He truly looks the part of the one time crack addict, as his awkward body language, sick, clammy skin tone, and the way he seems to be chewing on something when he's not eating anything, really makes him come off as a genuine crack addict. 


The entire cast is the driving force behind this film. The relationships and arguments that take place between Mickey, Dicky, their mother, her seven daughters, George Ward (Jack McGee), Charlene, and Mickey O'Keefe (as himself) are really the heart behind all the boxing that takes place. Melissa Leo turns in an emotionally powerful performance as you can tell she only wants the best for her family, does everything within her power to do just that, and still seems to wind up hurting them in the long run. Amy Adams character, Charlene, seems to want nothing more than to be with Mickey but is also relying on his success to be the ticket to her bettering her life. 


It has been said the places we come from and the people in our lifes shape the person that we are and we ultimately become. In the case of Micky Ward, his disfunctional family and the love of his life helped make him into the great fighter he was. Also thanks to this oddball family, we have received a fantastic film in "The Fighter". 


 "So, I guess we are who we are for alot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them. But even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. We can still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them."
— Stephen Chbosky