Confession time.
I have never seen any of the Rocky movies!
This fact should immediately tell you that boxing movies are not my bag. The Fighter, directed by David O.Russell doesn’t persuade me that I’m missing anything by shunning this genre.
I rate Raging Bull but that’s as far as it goes.
Scorsese was once in the frame as the director of The Fighter but wisely turned it down. It’s a solid enough movie but far too predictable.
The only reason I watched it was to complete my mission of seeing all the Oscar best picture nominees. I left it till last as I didn’t expect to like it and in this sense I wasn’t disappointed.
Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, and Amy Adams play Micky, Dicky and Charlene respectively. Micky is a big hitter but also a big softy at heart. Charlene is his girl and hated by his rabid family of foul-mouthed straw-haired sisters ( a family from hell).
Dicky is his half-brother who could have been a contender but ends up as a crackhead.
I quite liked Wahlberg’s understated performance but it only makes Bale’s over the top method acting seem all the more unhinged. Bale has never been a person or actor I admire and I find him very irritating here. The critical praise heaped on the movie centres on his grandstanding performance so if you like Bale you’ll like this movie. I don’t and didn’t.
The story is yet another true life triumph against all odds tale and I’m starting to think I want to see movies about failing with dignity – as Steely Dan sang on Deacon Blues: “they got a name for the winners in the world – I want a name when I lose“.
