The Fighter
Directed by: David O. Russell
Written by: Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, & Eric Johnson
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, and Melissa Leo
Micky Ward is trapped. Trapped by his overbearing mother, his drug-addicted has-been of a brother, and the endless cliches of boxing movies. Fortunately, with the help of an extraordinarily assembled cast of actors and a director (David O. Russell, a name to remember) with a fairly unique vision, The Fighter kind of comes out on top.
Horribly titled to be sure, this film tells the semi-true story of an underdog boxer (Mark Wahlberg). Blah, blah, blah, you’ve heard it all before. The biggest success of this movie is that Russell is almost in as much of a rush to get past the fight scenes and into the juicy human drama as the rest of us are. There’s a big story to be told here outside the ring, and when it stays outside the movie is a potent, fully alive drama.
CyniCritics 