"That guy did not just get off the fuckin' couch. If he did, I'm gonna get a couch like that."
There are some genres where pretty much every single movie it churns out is pretty much the same as the last one you watched. The "sports-film" genre isn't really any different. But here, in this genre, we have subcategories. There are not just sports-films, but Boxing-sports-films. They all pretty much include the same story. Some schmuck who wasn't very smart in school, is a poor bum who happens to have a "talent": he could knock people out. Through this God-given ability to smash heads like pumpkins, he falls in love, makes some money, and resolves most of the strained relationships in his life. The good ones though, don't really break the formula as much as they try and do what they can to poke some holes into it.
The Fighter, set in the 1990s, begins in Lowell Massachusetts. Mark Wahlberg—who's not really diverting greatly from his previous roles—plays Micky Ward, a fighter who has the cliché attribute of "heart." Christian Bale—in which my opinion is an Oscar worthy performance—plays his brother, Dicky. Dicky used to be a boxer over a decade earlier until a downward spiral ended his chances toward the title. Melissa Leo plays Micky and Dicky's mother, Alice. Alice is the selfish, conniving manager who you actually can't help but love. If you've ever seen a sports film before, you should be able to draw up a plot from start to finish from this paragraph alone.
This film, to a great extent, is a little unlike Rocky, Ali, and both versions of Body and Soul. Those films largely focused on an ordinary man who gradually triumphs over his environment to win it all. The Fighter on the other hand pits Ward as a man who's literally at the mercy of his environment. When he changes those that remain closest to him, or when those around him decide to change, he arises victorious. He doesn't ever really initiate it though. For all the heroics, he's largely and indecisive pawn that people love or need to push around.
Due to this, its Bale and Leo that pretty much carry the film forward; it's their performances that make it exception. Bale's bout with drug addiction is one that's already been displayed on film before, but Bale does something a little different with it that this time. Leo provides a fully fleshed out portrait for a woman both evil, and full of love. Amy Adams, as Wahlberg's love interest, is a great supporting actress but hardly conveys the time of powerful sentiment as Bale and Leo do. That works though.
I was very much in favor of Black Swan winning Best Picture as I was coming out my theater. But I had no choice but to change my mind after coming out of The Fighter. The ultimate response to a movie is always the emotional response. Black Swan, for all its theatrics, is a fantastic film, and most certainly will be recognized as a classic for years to come. However, when a movie like The Fighter comes along and brings it back to the fundamentals (the effect of the actors), and then provides a story that tugs at your heart strings, it's hard to resist. The Fighter embodies everything you want in a predictable, yet moving, sports film. It invokes all the great things that The Blind Side missed (not only did it miss marks, but it completely said, "Ahh, fuck it, who needs quality? We got Sandra Bullock!). It's amazing because both films stand on the opposite ends of the spectrum it rests on. Black Swan included a character detached from everything and thriving for absolute perfection. The Fighter includes a character with an almost symbiotic connection to his surroundings and yearning for just a chance. It embraces its nature of prediction, as opposed to trying to fight it. In a time as cynical as our own, I kind of like a movie that makes me smile a little.
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