‘The Fighter’ is a knockout

In theaters Friday: The Roommate, Sanctum

New on DVD/Blu-ray: Conviction, Let Me In, Monsters, Never Let Me Go

I know, I know, another boxing movie, right? Right. Well, I saw the The Fighter several weeks ago, but am just now able to put into words the astounding powers and pleasures of perhaps the finest film of the year, and one that contains maybe the greatest screen performance since Daniel Day-Lewis’ lauded role as a ruthless oil baron in 2007’s There Will Be Blood. I tried writing something the day after seeing it, but found its story of redemption, devotion and the often messy and misfired love of family still working its way through my veins. The Fighter was not done with me yet.

Set in the blighted industrial hub of Lowell, Mass., in the early 1990s, The Fighter is loosely based on the true story of junior welterweight world champion “Irish” Micky Ward, a once promising boxer who attempts an unlikely comeback with the wayward aid of his half-brother Dickie Ecklund—a former prize fighter turned drug addict—and his controlling and overly involved mother turned manager, Alice, a howl of a woman with a wicked Bah-stahn accent and a tube top.

Mark Wahlberg gives a grounded, if hangdog, lead performance as Micky Ward. He is the quiet anchor, the eye of the hurricane that allows Oscar nominees Christian Bale and Melissa Leo to shoot off sublime fireworks as Dickie and Alice. Both supporting actors complete a wholly convincing metamorphosis, but it is Bale’s turn as Dickie that shines brightest because the real Dickie is such a bizarrely charismatic and flawed character—a man of extreme highs, like knocking down Sugar Ray Leonard, and the extreme lows of crack addiction. Dickie is a fast talking force of nature, and Bale captures his essence in every gesture and tick, every slurred phrase and heartwarming surprise, in every pound, hair and tooth he lost for this part. If this isn’t an Oscar-winning performance, there is no such thing.

In David O. Russell’s first film since 2004—The Fighter is a comeback for him, too—he creates a film with an eye for the muck and mire of Lowell and the conventions of a string of memorable boxing films that have come before, the The Fighter never once lags, and offers some surprising moments of humor and heartbreak. After a disastrous loss in Las Vegas to a heavier opponent that Micky never should have fought but felt pressured by Dickie and Alice for the payday, Micky begins to reassess his future in the sport and his future with a family that seems to hold their interests above his own.

Amy Adams’ bartender Charlene, enters the fray as Micky’s new girlfriend, a spitfire who helps Micky finally stand up for himself against his mother, brother and a gaggle of nightmare-haired sisters. In an attempt to win Micky back by making enough money to allow Micky can train year round, Dickie once again runs afoul of the law, and in an arrest turned street brawl an angry officer breaks Micky’s hand. With Dickie behind bars and Micky a broken man on the skids, the stage is set for a mighty comeback.

Dickie is the fallen angel, the former family breadwinner, the guy who was supposed to change their lives for the better. Instead he fell into a life of drugs and crime. With the family pressure now on Dickie’s tenderhearted little brother, Alice still sees Dickie as her golden boy,and ignores his trespasses while holding him closer than she ever held Micky. Outside of maybe Boogie Nights, Wahlberg doesn’t have a lot of quotable moments as an actor, but when his Micky tells Leo’s Alice, “I’m your son, too,” those four words land like a roundhouse to the jaw.

The Fighter succeeds because the title could refer to each of the main characters. Everyone has to overcome something in this story; their own ring and their own battle. Dickie, Alice and Charlene have to face their own faults and sacrifice something dear to help a young man beaten down by his upbringing as much as his opponents finally achieve his potential as a boxer and as a man. And when Dickie realizes that his time has passed, that he blew his chance, but if he cleans up he can help his brother achieve his dreams, Micky’s heart becomes Dickie’s perseverance, and Micky’s victory becomes Dickie’s greatest triumph.