Member review

‘The Fighter’ is a drama that centres around the life of Micky Ward (portrayed by Mark Wahlberg) and his efforts to follow his boxing dream. Trained by his brother ‘Dicky’ Ward (portrayed by Christian Bale) who has fallen down the road of crack cocaine after his great boxing success, Micky struggles to deal with the fights he has in the ring, and the ones he has to deal with outside with his family members. Looking for his big break, Micky has to decide who to stick with, his strong-willed girlfriend Charlene Fleming (portrayed by Amy Adams) or his difficult yet loving family, consisting of a confused mother (portrayed by Melissa Leo) and seven sisters. This film tackles the very serious subject of drug addiction through Dicky’s troubles with crack cocaine and how it manages to get him involved with crime after his iconic boxing career. Bale plays the role of Dicky and does a fantastic job showing his attitude towards his addiction and how he doesn’t see how it is affecting his family. The viewer is able to immerse themselves in a family with a crisis around every corner and the effects of drug abuse are shown accurately and are able to provide the viewer with enough reasons to avoid that lifestyle. Wahlberg does a good job of playing Micky too, as the confusion of who can help him achieve his dream is shown in his portrayal. The overall style of the film is satisfying as it is easy to watch and entices you into a false reality with the documentary style introduction. The boxing matches are shot differently to the main parts of the film and provide a change of pace from the relatively slow storyline that focuses on the relationships between characters. The character development is strong as you see how each main character changes as the film progresses. There is a fitting gritty style to the film that works well with the plot of a struggling boxer trying to make it big like his brother did in his prime. Although the plot is quite predictable in terms of an underdog trying to achieve his goal, this doesn’t matter too much thanks to the focus on character development. Overall ‘The Fighter’ is a well-produced film that has good character portrayal and an interesting plot with boxing matches in between for those who are looking for some action. The performance of Christian Bale is particularly good as Dicky Ward and Wahlberg’s acting makes the on-screen relationship between the brothers intriguing to watch. I give ‘The Fighter’ a 7.5/10 and four stars out of five.