A boxing movie from David O. Russell? Can't miss that. Having been a fan of his since Flirting with Disaster (1996), I was excited to see what he would do the genre. My anticipation was rewarded by this account of "Irish" Micky Ward's (Mark Wahlberg) return to the ring in which personal volition and family obligations are honestly examined agaisnt a decaying landscape of cribs and crackhouses. The film is dominated by Christian Bale's absorbing performance as Ward's older brother Dickie Eklund, an ex-fighter himself, who has traded his gloves in for a crack-pipe. The plot being simple in itself, the film's strenghth lays in its human portrayal of its characters, the ambiguity of right-and-wrong evident through their belief in the righteousness of their own perspective, which is mostly centered on what's best for Ward's carreer. Melissa Leo as the matriarch is especially irritating; in a good way. While perhaps missing the tint of humour usually present in Russell's work, The Fighter is still a very strong portrayal of human determinatinon and the forces working for and against it; it's got a decent ammount of boxing too.
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