It had such a happy ending?

The Fighter

To be honest, when the film started I thought it was “The Wrestler” all over again. In fact, it was totally the opposite. We start with the end of “The Wrestler” and end up somewhere in dreamland Hollywood. It’s nice and emotionally rewarding to see the “loser” turning into a winner against all odds, but that simple tearjerking device alone would not be doing the film justice. It’s the road to get there that counts, not necessarily the result. And boy that road was strangely interesting.

What makes the film worthwhile to see is the entire family of Micky’s, and the struggles they all went through. The exposition of the film was wonderfully written in my opinion. The portrayal of Lowell and its inhabitants, the snottiness of the sisters, the struggle between these very intimate yet destructive family relationships – I was quite impressed by how much they dragged me into the film. I actually liked how this family openly fought out its problems, and the moment where Dicky finally makes up with Charlene ended up being quite powerful. If the conflicts and fights in the family hadn’t been so dreadful and sad at the beginning, the final coming together of all those characters, all of whom ultimately want the best for Micky, would not have become so meaningful.

The weakest aspect of the film is probably that Christian Bale outplays both Mark Wahlberg and Amy Adams easily. He has so much stage presence and is so charismatic as crack addict, it makes the other two leads appear bland in comparison. I am not into Amy Adams and I have absolutely no idea where she got that Oscar nomination from – there is nothing great about her acting here, and there was at least one scene in which I thought she looked strangely fake. In my opinion she should go back to playing romantic comedies really. That’s the type of face she has. Unfortunately she also had a rather annoying role of the girl who curses and fights on the surface, but actually just plays of the role of the comfort woman to her man. She never gets to have her own life and her own character, and I disliked how her character seems to have nothing going on for herself besides her love for Micky. Sure, this is a boxing movie and it’s all about men, but hey the mother had a fairly proper role there (although she is never shown contributing to Micky’s later success after all), so why not the girlfriend?

It’s not like the film moved me to tears, and I thought it was actually not as emotionally involving as “The Wrestler”, but it was certainly an enjoyable and well-executed Hollywood-style film. Recommended.