The Fighter: An Honest Movie

The recent 2010 movie, The Fighter, is not one to be passed up.  Nominated for six Golden Globes and nine nominations is not false advertising; this movie is that good.  Mickey Ward (Mark Wahlberg), is kid brother to Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale) the once acclaimed boxer turned coke addict.

Mickey, following in his brother’s boxing footprints takes the ring with Dicky as his primary coach claiming, “Dicky has taught me everything I know.” Only after a fight that leaves Micky badly bruised does he begin to consider changing management.  This is not an easy task because his mother, Alice Ward (Melissa Leo) is his current manager.

Based on a true story, the actor’s characters are based off of real people in life, and this realism makes the audience feel at ease and comfortable interacting with these characters on screen.  This parallelism between the viewer and the characters allows the audience to be emotionally vulnerable with the characters.  Humor, suspense, love, hatred, betrayal and suspense are all conveyed to the viewer through this parallelism.

The acting is powerful because it feels so real and connected to the actual characters themselves.  Each character is respected in his or her own right, therefore a movie with many protagonists instead of one.  The honesty felt within each character is what makes The Fighter a must see.