So I was watching The Fighter yet again with a buddy of mine this past weekend. He hadn’t seen it yet and I thought it was rather absurd that it had been this long without him seeing this piece of cinematic gold. It was nominated at the Oscars for many different academy awards including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress just to name a few. Any way, after I went to Blockbuster and saw it was completely sold out (for good reason), I bought it on my TV. We both sat down, shut up, got the food out, and watched the movie.

The film is set in Lowell Mass. circa 1993. It follows the story of road worker and actual boxer in real life, Mickey Ward played by Mark Wahlberg. A 31 year old “stepping stone” as he is called by critics and the residents, he lives under the over protective eye of his mother/manager Melissa Leo and in the shadow of his trainer/step brother, a once promising boxer Dicky Eklund played by Christian Bale. Eklund is the pride of Lowell for having fought Sugar Ray Leonard on HBO in 1978 and having “knocked him down” even though it is determined that Leonard simply tripped. Yet after having all the  notoriety come too fast and too soon, Eklund has slipped into crack addiction and crime. He lives in a rundown crack house, repeatedly shows up late to training sessions, and is constantly in drug induced hazes on the days of Mickey’s fights.

Back to Ward. Ward is a very talented boxer, but he is simply falling victim to the wrong fights and with a real chance on the horizon at the age of 31, he is torn between doing what’s best for him and his loyalty to his family. It’s a great story about how this very lovable and real character makes it to the top of the boxing world. It is a very Rocky-esque rise to the top indeed.

Let’s start with Wahlberg’s character. He plays Ward in a very correct manner. Like Ward himself, he isn’t very talkative, he lets his boxing do the talking. He is a reserved man who loves his family and all those close to him. Based on all the conflicts in the movie regarding family however, we have few instances in which we see any emotions other than determination, frustration, and disappointment. Yet Wahlberg pulls this off in the best possible way. We get up and cheer when he knocks out his final opponent. We want to root for him and do so as opposed of getting tired of his never changing mood. Maybe it’s his facial expression of stern love and scrappy determination that he always seems to have throughout the movie. He’s  experienced in such roles having already performed in “Invincible.”

Dicky Eklund is played by Christian Bale. Bale was just about perfect in this role, as good as you can get. Based on his charm and charisma in his town, he is very good with people and very lovable. This makes him more and more of the typical tragic character. This is someone who had a talent that he threw away once he lost it to drug abuse. Bale lost 60 pounds to play Eklund allegedly in order to take on the part of an emaciated crack addict. What else can I say? He basically mastered the east coast accent, speech pattern, and swagger that belongs to the region, and was very good at it. “He’s a skeleton with swag,” was our shared opinion on him when we were joking around, however we took him quite seriously when we saw him in pain. Both of us are from the East, both of us are understanding of the swagger, of drug problems, and most importantly about the meaning of family, so the scenes where he is on screen with his son strike a nerve. Bale performed it beautifully, well done.

Amy Adams won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. She played Ward’s girlfriend and future wife Charlene. She’s a bar girl who went to college yet thanks to partying, blew an opportunity as a high jumper. Still, even though this part exists, Dicky’s antics almost make us forget about her former ones. She’s got attitude, she’s hard to fool, and she’s not afraid to express her opinion. Based on her former wild reputation, she is known by Micky’s mother and sisters as an “MTV girl.” Yet at the same time, she is very supportive and loving towards Ward and only wants to see him succeed. She is his rock in the movie and she is very authentic. I know the type because hey, what can I say, I live back there. Here’s something else, she’s authentic. One thing in particular that I like about Amy Adams in this movie, is the fact that she doesn’t look like she came from Hollywood. What I mean is that she looks like a girl from Lowell. She has taken on the appearance of a bartender. Forgive me if that doesn’t sound PC but that’s the truth. She did a wonderful job. For those of you who still don’t get it, rent it, buy it, watch it. It’s that good.

I especially enjoyed the sisters, O’Keefe (the policeman who serves as one of Mickey Ward’s trainers) and Mickey’s father who serve as the comic relief in a would have been completely heavy movie. It’s real, it’s authentic, it really hits home if you pardon the pun I threw in there. Most of all, it’s what life can look like at times. It stirs up the emotion very well and it just might make you laugh, cry, and throw a couple of punches. Scratch that, it will.