Marky Mark and the Really Funky Bunch

The Fighter

** out of ****

Directed by: David O. Russell

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Melissa Leo and Jack McGee

Running time: 115 minutes

I was supposed to feel bad for Micky Ward, the heavy-hearted lightweight boxer portrayed by Mark Wahlberg in The Fighter. At the film’s end, who I really pitied was Wahlberg himself.

The actor/producer spent nearly a decade working on this passion project. He trained for four years – even on sets of his other films – and had the real-life Ward nearby to help him prepare for the role and morph into the character. Wahlberg also went down for the count a few times after deciding to become his own stuntman.

So, this terrific story about a rising boxer being pummeled by the forces within his grasp (i.e., his family) has all the grit, guts and glory that Wahlberg and audiences want to see; unfortunately, every time the film focuses on our protagonist, Wahlberg gets pushed against the ropes to make way for three showier supporting performances.

Micky Ward was a courageous fighter in working-class Massachusetts. He grew up worshipping his half-brother, Dickie, (Christian Bale) known to the locals as the “Pride of Lowell” for beating Sugar Ray Leonard many years ago. Now, Dickie is the focus of a new HBO documentary - on the effects of crack addiction that led to his decline, although Dickie thinks it’s about his comeback - while Micky is struggling to win matches.

With his half-brother and mother (Melissa Leo) as his main sponsor – albeit less as a family member and more as an athlete – Micky abandons their help to take some time off, both to train as a boxer and get his bewildering folks off his case. He also starts a romance with a cool, feisty barmaid, Charlene (Amy Adams).

When the boxer protagonist is personified best by the chorus of the song he enters the ring with – Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again,” and surely you know the words – it is a sign that the character is stagnant and incomplete.

This should be Wahlberg’s film; instead, it belongs to three of the most overwrought performances of the year by three actors shrieking and intensifying their characters to such a level that their portrayals feel like one-note caricatures. Vying for an Oscar, these excellent character actors make the mistake of acting “the most” instead of being true to the supporting role they’ve been given. Bale, Leo and Adams overdo it to the point that we feel like we’re watching actors act rather than watching real people live and interact.

Bale, often insanely “method” (he lost 30 pounds for this role) and intense, has such a brash, reptilian charisma that he almost takes the entire story down with him. More time is focused on his drug problem and dysfunctional relationship with his brother than with any of Micky’s predicaments.

Leo, snarly and proud as Alice, has a poofy hairdo and biting tone but never gets to reveal more than her makeup and acidic tongue. Adams, also confined to expletive-heavy outbursts and bad-girl glares, rarely feels authentic.

These parts may have been more finely tuned had Russell, the director, not been vying for the same glittery prizes his performers want. Russell doesn’t so much unleash his inner Scorsese as imitate many of the director’s trademarks, themes and visual style. By the end, his references don't feel like homages but lewd plagiarism.

Long-winded tracking shot in a restaurant? Check. Gritty exploration of tough, fussy, mean streets? Check. Loud, physically aggressive characters? Check. Rock and roll soundtrack with a Rolling Stones tune? Check. Even in the ring, the camera angles and shot compositions feel as if they were copied and pasted with the ones from Raging Bull (except now in colour).

The Fighter could have been a contender, but it has no class. Full of cliches, cheap shots and caricatures, it never accomplishes its main goal: to honour the story of a real-life boxer.

By the time he’s back in the saddle and ready to work his way to a championship, we know so little about Ward that he is a hard hero to root for. The performances are overcooked while its narrative ambitions are underdeveloped. I’m not a lover of this fighter.