The Fighter

The Fighter could have been about the most boring topic in the world but with the double team of Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale I was always going to be excited about it.

PLOT: Micky Ward is an up and coming boxer based in Hicksville USA and is unfortunately saddled with his older brother Dicky, a drug addict and former boxer as his coach. Micky finds himself torn between his family and his girl as he desperately tries to keep his boxing career on track. Dicky is struggling with his habit whilst making a documentary about addiction.
Micky gets his ass kicked, Micky gets an opportunity, Micky disowns Dicky, Micky gets help from Dicky, a training montages sneaks in under the radar, Micky goes to London and is crowned the Champion and I have just spoiled the ending of the movie. END PLOT

The other two thirds of my Trio had asked what happened to my blog for The Fighter and I responded that I didn’t particularly want to write it as I didn’t know what to say about Christian Bale’s performance. They called me out on it straight away, accusing me of not liking Christian Bale because he got nominated over Mark Wahlberg.

The annoying thing about being part of a Trio who is always right is the fact that the Trio is always right.

BEGIN RANT: I have spend the vast majority of Mark Wahlberg’s career defending the man through thick and thin. I will agree that if you watch The Happening as a botanical thriller then he is piss poor but if you watch it as an ironic comedy Mark’s performance is transformed and elevated to the stuff of legends.

It is therefore really frickin’ annoying that the one time Mark actually pulls out an amazing performance he gets overlooked at the Oscar’s.

Mark got nominated for The Departed because he had an interesting hair cut and swore a lot but in The Fighter he is good at just acting.

Christian Bale is fine but at times he is very over the top. Dear Sweet Mark was so much better and deserved a best actor nomination. END RANT

The cast, especially Mark Wahlberg (and Bale to a lesser extent) were fantastic.

I do feel sorry for Wahlberg as he played the straight guy and has got over looked by the more showy performances which, for avoidance of doubt, I think is harsh.

Christian Bale was good, but the movie at times became the Dicky show, so it is debatable whether or not he should have been allowed to be in the supporting actor category. I will stop moaning though as I believe that if anyone other than Mark Wahlberg played Micky Ward I would be driving the Bale Bandwagon.

Amy Adams was great as Charlene and Melissa Leo as Alice Ward almost outshone everyone. They can box it out for the best supporting actress accolade but I think Melissa just about punches above Amy’s weight. Or something.

I did like the Ward family and it entertained me that the mother of Dicky and Micky procreated some of the scariest looking bunch of sisters since Cinderella although with nicknames like Pork, Tar, Red-Dog and Beaver what did you expect. The family focus was solely on the boys with the girls giving up their seats whenever they walked into a room. There were some nice touches with the family although I wouldn’t ever want to cross them.

Lock up your daughters. Literally

As I am a stickler for tradition I did not google the name Micky Ward in order to get some background information before I watched his life story. I also know nothing about boxing and would struggle to name one active boxer.

I didn’t realise how into the movie I was until quite near the end when Hilts asked me if I thought he won. I replied that I didn’t know and discovered I was quite stressed. I prayed that The Fighter wouldn’t turn into another Friday Night Lights as my poor shattered nerves couldn’t handle it. Emma-hen by this stage had begun punching the air in some sort of supporting yet uncontrollable spasm. The Nerdy Trio were stressed.

I absolutely loved everything about The Fighter and I cant fault it. It gets a 9/10 and will be a rare addition to my sports movie collection which consists of Friday Night Lights and Dodgeball.

Does The Fighter deserve Best Picture erm……. no
Does The Fighter deserve Best Direction erm……no
Does The Fighter deserve Best Screenplay erm……no
Does The Fighter deserve Best Supporting Actress …….yep
Does The Fighter deserver Best Supporting Actor erm……..yep (begrudged and I am aiming for a perfect score with this years prediction)

Does The Fighter deserve Best Actor …………….No

I am ignoring the fact that I can hear the rest of the Trio screaming “why are you crying like a jail house bitch over Mark’s lack of nomination whenever you want Colin Firth to win?” This is my blog and I can be as irrational as I see fit.

The End