The Fighter

Ratings: 7.5/10

Film Class: B

Genre: Drama

Melancholy drama about the early years of boxing champ Micky Ward and how his life was greatly influenced by his family and his girlfriend back then. The movie revolves around his internal and external struggles to pursue his dream and patch up his broken life.

Kudos to Christian Bale to perhaps one of his best performances in his acting career. Christian Bale stars as Dicky Eldund, Micky Ward's (Mark Wahlberg) brother who is both a degenerated boxing legend and loving brother. Mark Wahlberg did a decent job in building his body up and delivering a decent performance while Amy Adams was the true black horse. Her most memorable performance was her role as the fairytale-like princess in Enchanted. She took on a more serious role as a nun in Doubt and she has once again showed to the world how versatile an actress she is.

Both Christian Bale and Amy Adams stole the limelight, but the main focus was still kept on Mark Wahlberg, which I thought was what made this movie as exceptional as it was. However, I'm generally not fond of boxing movies (Rocky Balboa didn't make it for me) nor melancholy dramas. I prefer thought-provoking movies and not so much about movies of redemption. Therefore, my ratings for this movie are entirely subjective.

A great movie but somehow, it wasn't able to pull me in. But of all the boxing movies I've watched, this ranks as one of the top 2, on par with Million Dollar Baby. Ending wasn't exaggerated, the realism was kept but the heightened climax was compromised and after sitting through a close-to-2-hr-long movie, I only wanted it to end with an unforgettable punch, but it didn't. Forgettable movie, with unforgettable performances.