The Fighter

Total Spoilers!

I just didn't see it coming: a hopeful climax. Not knowing the the true story of Micky and Dicky, I would've bet, based on the first three-quarters of 2010's THE FIGHTER that this picture would have a bleak, sorrowful ending. Everything seemed to point to a shattering scene where Dicky would take his last breath. This time, I'm (mostly) glad I was wrong. But, as relieved as I was to learn that this story had a happy ending, I felt the film's electricity drain away in the last half hour. Director David O. Russell paints a very vivid portrait of working class Lowell, Massachusetts from the earliest moments, focusing on Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg), a promising up-and-coming local boxer, Dicky Eklund (Christain Bale), his self-destructive, crack addicted older half-brother who was once a contender himself and Micky's trainer, and their mother, Alice (Melissa Leo), their manager.

THE FIGHTER takes a harsh, clear eyed take on the conflict Micky feels of family versus career. For most of the way, the film confidently, stylishly recounts this story, set in 1993. Dicky's sole claim to fame is his win over Sugar Ray Leonard in a 1978 bout. Though some say Leonard actually just tripped, it became Dicky's high point, something about which to boast, a laurel on which to rest. But he would soon willingly lose himself in the pleasures of intoxicants; he watched the little black dot way too long as Trent Reznor once sang. As Micky comes into his own as a fighter, Dicky tries to impart his strategies, but to say he's a poor, unreliable role model is understatement itself. To only make this point more lucid, HBO (who aired his fight with Sugar Ray) is filming Nicky's life, every sordid detail, to produce a documentary on crack addiction.

Micky meets Charlene (Amy Adams), another coulda been a contender who dropped out of college and abandoned her athletic abilities to become a bartender. She gets closer to Micky and begins to see his family dynamic as a toxic cycle of apathy and failure. Alice is a slipshod manager, setting up fights with opponents out of Micky's league (including one who allegedly "just got off the couch", but then pummels the poor guy). Micky's many sisters are a sad collection of stay-at-homes, all living with mom, all going nowhere. It's only a matter of time before Charlene faces down the other women in Micky's life (in a both hilarious and horrifying scene), and the most corrosive influence of all, Nicky. Baby brother will make tough choices. Sometimes family loyalty can be a very damaging option. I've described your classic underdog scenario, and the script by Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, and Eric Johnson follows many of the standard developments one would expect in this sort of story. Certainly, you know there will be a crucial match at the end. Along the way, Nicky will rise and fall, rise and fall. 

This is meat-and-potatoes drama, raw elements for a satisfying movie. Like REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT, THE CHAMP, and ROCKY before it. It does not disappoint. The bonus is that Russell gives this formula a lot of juice, a shot of adrenaline with inventive, restless cinematography and editing and a just right pace. He manages a good balance of tone, shifting seemlessly between comedic and dramatic moments, sometimes within the same scene. Russell gives all of his pictures an almost quirky edge, regardless if the material itself is off center, that is hard to explain but you know it's there. Like in THREE KINGS and SPANKING THE MONKEY. Need I mention that the acting is simply explosive? Bale very believably inhabits the narrow frame and character of Nicky in ways I can't recall seeing in his other roles. He was very deserving of his Oscar win. Likewise for Leo, who I've only seen a few times prior. She yells and throws plates but also has a quiet resignation of Nicky's inevitable downward spiral, expressed in ways both seen and felt by the viewer. She somehow transfers those feelings to the viewer. That's acting. 

Wahlberg's role is less flashy, perhaps even (arguably) yeoman's tasking but still strong and undeserving of being overshadowed by the others. I also liked Adams' atypical role, a tough Mass chick with as filthy a mouth as everyone else and a fearlessness that has sustained her thus far. Adams usually plays sunnier, far more innocent types and it's good to see the stretch. The last half hour of THE FIGHTER, however, seems to lose its urgency, its power. The story goes in a bit of an unexpected direction and ends quite optimistically. Triumphantly. I still cheered, but felt the movie sold out a bit. Is this because of years of seeing great films that ended with great tragedy? Have I equated cinematic art with tears? Do I feel that in order for a film to achieve greatness it has to conclude in despair? I wonder, but there are many films I place in the highest annals that end hopefully, though most are from many years past. Things are increasingly grim in the multiplex these last decades. While THE FIGHTER is not entirely the great film it seemed to be leading up to, it is still quite fine. And the happy ending is only following real life. I don't imagine you can argue with that.