Fact-based drama about a boxer trying to escape the pull of his family, starring Christian Bale
Year: 2010
Certificate: 15
Boxing has long fascinated film-makers, partly because of the colourful characters it attracts. Dicky Eklund and Micky Ward (Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg) are two such characters in a film following the Rocky formula, but actually based on a true story.
Dicky (Bale) is ‘The Pride of Lowell’, a once-promising prizefighter who famously knocked down Sugar Ray Leonard in 1978. He now trains his brother, ‘Irish’ Micky Ward (Wahlberg), having thrown away his own career in the 1980s, when drink and drugs took hold. Micky could be a champ, but his brother and his mother (also his manager) are holding him back – not because they want to, but because they can’t help themselves.
The Fighter is a sweaty, raw boxing flick, but always punctuated with an inherent comedy born out of the ridiculousness of real life. As much as anything, though, it’s about families. It may be Micky whose career is on the ropes, but all of the characters here have hard lives – they’re poor but proud people who stick together, and they’re all fighters in their own way.
Mark Wahlberg puts in a beautifully understated turn as Micky, but it was Christian Bale who won an Oscar as Dicky. His OTT performance is easy to mock, but wait until you see footage of the real Dicky over the closing credits – it’s scarily accurate. Real, too, is the documentary that frames the action (HBO’s High On Crack Street: Lost Lives In Lowell) – the film within a film being made about Eklund, which he thinks is about his ‘glorious’ past and touted return to the ring, but is really about his descent into addiction. He later cleaned up, and, though it’s hard to believe, picked up a sideline in motivational speaking. (116 minutes)
