The Fighter is a brilliant film, and for me one of the best movies of 2010 along with The King's Speech, The Social Network and Toy Story 3. The editing and cinematography are top-drawer especially as are the compellingly atmospheric score, the brilliant direction which seamlessly blends gritty realism and the theme of fighting-against-the-odds as seen in the finale and the script which has a lot of class and heart with the odd peppering of humour and good humour at that.
What made The Fighter were the boxing fight sequences and the acting. The fight sequences are very kinetic, energetic and very exciting. And thanks to the quality of the direction and script, not to mention the acting, the characters are very credible and genuine. The acting is brilliant. Mark Wahlberg gives his best performance so far and provides the heart of the film, while Amy Adams is completely different from her Enchanted persona being more crude and less infectious in a cute way. But the best performances come from Christian Bale, who is just astonishing, and Melissa Leo who is equally a revelation.
In conclusion, a knockout of a film and one of the year's best. 10/10 Bethany Cox
Every time I watch a new David O. Russell movie, I end up liking it more than the previous one, this film is the pithier of his career, the way he directs each character and each situation is quite applaudable.
About the performances, well, they get three nominations for the Academy Award and two of them won it, so, that says it all. And the script has a palpable superfluity in which at all times it presented us with something important and interesting to watch.
Only Amy Adams, playing Mickey's tough-tender girlfriend Charlene, manages to be convincingly working-class without seeming either dopey or rabid or strung-out.
So like much of this film, the viewer is turned into an observer. You never feel close enough to the action, either in the ring or in the kitchens, living rooms and tough streets where the story takes place. The characters engage you up to a point but never really pull you in.
The Fighter was the one movie that I knew I had to see in 2010. My two favorite actors are Amy Adams and Christian Bale, so I knew I had to see this film to see them together. As the release date came closer, and as more and more Oscar buzz flowed, I knew this was going to be a great one. It is. This film is easily among the 5 best films of the year, if not the best.
The best part of this film is the acting. Unbelievable! The three main supporting cast members give some of the best performances I have ever seen. They have to go down as one strongest supporting casts ever. I believe Christian Bale will finally receive his long overdue Oscar. His performance is simply incredible. He completely takes ownership of the role and simply disappears entirely into the character. His character changes so much throughout the film and no better actor could have delivered as affectively. I also loved Melissa Leo's performance. Absolutely stunning! She is so real and believable as the tough mother. Her performance is truly remarkable. I believe Melissa Leo will win the Oscar for best supporting actress, but it was Amy Adams that completely made this film for me. Her performance is phenomenal! She completely steals every scene. She flawlessly portrays the quiet but tough Charlene. This film shows Amy Adams at her best. She, too, will receive an Oscar nomination, hopefully the win. Also, her performance really allows Mark Wahlberg to shine as well. He gives a good performance, but the entire film is dominated by stellar supporting actors.
A thing that surprised me was the screenplay. The script is simply fantastic. It is so real, strong, and genuinely portrays what the people of the area and time would have been like. The script also has many humorous moments that were surprising, but absolutely perfect. The Fighter is so much more than a typical sports or boxing film. It focuses more on relationships, family, and conflicts as opposed to the boxing. I have to mention the final fight scene.....brilliant. The perfect ending to a great movie. After being blessed with the first 90 minutes of the film, we are treated by an awesome final boxing scene. Loved it! Nominated for 7 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay, this is a brilliant film. Far better than Rocky and Raging Bull will ever be. This deserved every amount of praise it received. Props to Mark Wahlberg for pushing to create this film!
Absolutely loved it. One of my favorites!
I'm not a boxing expert, so I never heard of Micky Ward and I had to go on the internet to see who he was. I can't say if the film was true to the facts or if things were really as shown. I will ignore these points and talk about the film, and the story that tells only.
The film talks about two brothers linked to boxing: one of them, ****, was a good fighter in the past, but the drugs got the better of him and prevented him from going any further. Nevertheless, he is still the pride of the family, especially the mother, who insists on not seeing what he does. Micky has aspirations to be a good fighter, but fails because family do not help him. And that family, in itself, is reason enough for us to understand the reasons why the young aspiring champion feels so suffocated.
The film is quite interesting and entertains more than I expected. The way he explores family relationships and the madness of that family is excellent. In addition, it makes an interesting analysis of the functioning and mentality of a small and backward city, where an individual narrowly becomes a hero, in the absence of another that shadows him and truly deserves public recognition.
The cast is impressive and full of big names. Mark Wahlberg is good on the role and committed himself, but the fact is that the character is uninteresting and there is not much to do about it. Who truly stands out and steals the attention is the duo composed by Christian Bale and Melissa Leo who, in two supporting characters, knew how to become the stars and shine, with an impressive succession of madness. Both actors are good and their total commitment was rewarded with the Oscar, the only two statuettes that this film collected, of the several for which he was nominated. Amy Adams is also part of this film, but she, like Wahlberg, has a minor role, limiting herself to being the protagonist's hot girlfriend who torments his family as much as possible.
Technically, it is a discreet film. Cinematography is good, and makes good use of action and fighting scenes. The sets and costumes are consistent with what is required by the story, but do not stand out. There are several visual effects and the make-up team was effective in reproducing cuts and wounds, which, I am sure, is something that is usual for these specialists. What really caught my attention was, in fact, the soundtrack, which uses several melodies by Michael Brook and a song that became known, called “How you Like Me Now?”, By The Heavy.
I've watched many movies of Bale, so I believe he is one of the greatest actors in the history of cinema, he can act any character like Politician, super hero, western, psycho, etc. Also in this movie you can see a fabulous character ''****'' that Bale made as a boxer who is struggling with drug addiction.
''The Fighter'' focus on the relationship between Micky, **** and their family, I was hoping if there were more boxing and hard training, I felt that I am watching a dramatic movie not a fighter movie, only at the end i saw some fighting scenes.
After all the movie is watchable, especially Bale character will make you enjoy in the movie.
The Fighter sorry to say is another typical boxing movie only with the screwed up family, a brother who is a crack addict and a girlfriend who is just trying help mark wahlberg along. yet of all the strong acting the leading role fell flat in which made the movie flat as well.
How the heck this movie got such good reviews is completely beyond me. Its a joke of a film. Bales performance is way overthetop and not believable whatsoever; it boarders on fascicle and stupid. The fighting is ruined by the camera and the added sound effects which take away from the seriousness of the film. 3 is being generous its probably worth half a point. Waste of a film