Lowell, Massachusetts. Micky Ward aspires to be a successful boxer, but this is hampered by his mother Alice, who is his manager, and especially by his crack cocaine-addicted brother Dicky, who is his trainer. In the latest fiasco, they persuade Micky to accept a match with a boxer who is 20 pounds heavier than him, resulting in Micky getting beaten up heavily. Micky is so ashamed, he does not even want to contact waitress Charlene for a date, who still eventually becomes his girlfriend. After Dicky gets into a fight with police officers, and Micky's hand gets broken when he tries to intervene, Micky decides to break all his ties with his family and accept the offer of a new trainer. Micky wins several matches. Eventually, when Dicky stops taking cocaine, Micky reconciles with him, and wins in a London match against Shea Neary.
This "Rocky" knockoff would not have gained so much attention had it not been for the fact that it is actually based on true events, giving the seemingly predictable story of a boxer who falls and then rises actual credibility and authenticity. While it is unknown how much of the story involving Micky and Dicky Ward is true, as opposed to what was made up for cinematic drama effect, "The Fighter" is a movie that slowly manages to engage the viewers, since its set-up is paid off in the final act. A lot of credit goes not to the rather standardly written script, but rather to the excellent actors who make something more out of their roles, most notably Christian Bale as Dicky Ward, who deteriorated due to crack cocaine, which leads to a strange situation in which it does not matter how much Micky invests into Dicky, since the latter just keeps dragging him down, regardless of all the efforts, since he is a "human liability". Bale is very good, though he only manages to exceed to greatness in two sequences: one is when Dicky thinks that HBO is making a movie about him due to his boxing match with Sugar Ray Leonard, only to later find out they were just making a documentary about crack cocaine-addicts, and upon seeing the film in prison, Dicky is disgusted by himself, as if he sees the mirror for the first time. The other is when he takes a cake and just hands it over to his former cocaine sellers, signalling that he transformed. A lot of the rest of the film is nothing particularly new, giving a study on the lives of lower-class which was already seen a hundred times before, yet the movie is still good, especially in the exciting finale.
Grade:++
No comments:
Post a Comment