Move Aside Rocky there’s a New Kid in Town

Palookaville definitely has a contender
By Morgan P Salvo
What’s that you say? David O. Russell, the guy who directed Spanking the Monkey, Three Kings and I Heart Huckabees made a boxing movie? Yes it’s true the king of quirky has made a straight forward boxing pic based on a true story, fueled by performances of compelling grit and layered intensities, simply entitled The Fighter.
It’s a drama about boxer "Irish" Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg), an up-and-coming welterweight who is being groomed to become the next ''pride of Lowell Mass” by his older half brother, Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale), a local boxing legend-turned-crack-addict and his overly imposing manager/mother, Alice (Melissa Leo).
Though it’s virtually impossible to make a boxing movie without drawing comparisons to Rocky, Raging Bull, Million Dollar Baby and The Wrestler, this film more resembles On the Waterfront, as it focuses more on the psychological pain and connection to family than the actual boxing scenes.
Once again we have a tough and somber version of Massachusetts’ mean streets, this time centered in Lowell, the birthplace of America’s industrial revolution and Jack Kerouac. Showcasing the toxic interaction between families that are usually more dramatized by Eugene O'Neill, the filmmaking alone holds it own in originality
Russell’s cinematic style is the real star of this film. Following the characters with a moving camera/wandering eye and using different film stock for scenes, he creates the feel of an intriguing documentary. Shooting with straight video to depict the boxing scenes with all its inherent lines and fuzziness, the camera visuals never let you down. Ironically the sub plot is the making of a documentary on Dicky’s life that he touts as his comeback film for HBO, but is in actuality a documentary on crack addiction, allowing us see the seedier side of life and all its deadly ramifications.
As we follow the career of Micky and the downfall of Dicky, we also get to see all the raging dysfunctions of their family reminiscent of a reality show, their domestic drama played out in full view of innocent bystanders. There are seven sisters who never seem to leave the house, mean and nasty hags all bitchy and hairdos. Across town lies the den of drug addicts that seem to just wallow in crack smoke. Russell’s use of non-actors in these roles proves to be a stroke of genius as their scenes have that uncomfortable reality of people who mean well but get directly under your skin. Plus you wonder where the hell did they come from?
There’s something inherently authentic about the story and performances. Bale overdoes it from the get-go but after you get over his thespian showboating you lock into his character. Wahlberg plays it solid and laidback only to explode when necessary. In their defense, real footage of Dicky and Micky at the ending credits makes it clear they were on the mark. Leo rules as the chain-smoking self-absorbed queen of manipulation, right down to the lacquered platinum blond hair, hovering like a vulture over her one son's boxing career while pampering and enabling her other son’s wasted life. Amy Adams as Micky’s girlfriend Charlene sheds her nice girl image (Leap Year, Doubt) in a finely hewn performance of a feisty college dropout/ bartender with high hopes. Alice’s husband George (Jack Magee) is a puffy Irish drunk who gets to shoulder the burden of a wacked out family gone turbo and he looks it. Mickey O'Keefe (in a surprisingly astonishing performance) plays himself, a sergeant for the Lowell Police Department in Massachusetts (as of 2010). In real life, he was Micky’s mentor during his prolific boxing career.
Fighter quickly moves past the corny formulaic mush. The requisite tension is achieved leading up to the championship bout and the Rocky-esque training montages are kept short. The rivalries between promoters and trainers that could’ve been handled as good vs. evil instead played out as almost pure dysfunction. Shot with intimacy all the little intricacies of human emotion resonate as the drunken aspirations from Looserville rise and fall like the tide.
Good music is used throughout (Breeders, Rolling Stones, Whitesnake to name a few) and there’s even an a cappella version of the Bee Gees’ “I Started A Joke” that is sure to make you wince.
Overall The Fighter is yet another slug-fest drama but rings true establishing heartfelt sentiment that real life goes on and even drugged out hopes and dreams can come true.

The Fighter
Starring Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Melissa Leo
Directed by David O. Russell
Rated R
 3 stars