David O. Russell's boxing drama "The Fighter" was unveiled Tuesday night as the secret screening at AFI Fest, where proud distributor Paramount orchestrated the film's "stealth" world premiere.
Producer and star Mark Wahlberg introduced the movie by noting that "I haven't seen a crowd like this since I performed with the Funky Bunch."
Indeed, it was a packed house, as more than 100 people were turned away at the door, and other important invitees weren't seated until well after the picture started.
Wahlberg gives a winning performance as "Irish" Micky Ward, a 31-year old fighter from Lowell, Massachusetts who has been taught "everything he knows" by his older, crack-addicted half-brother, Dick "Dickie" Eklund. Dickie is played with smoldering intensity by Christian Bale, who will surely earn his first Oscar nomination for his pitch-perfect performance as a man haunted by the glory days that have passed him by.
Two of last year's Oscar nominees, Amy Adams ("Doubt") and Melissa Leo ("Frozen River"), play Micky's bartender girlfriend, Charlene, and his "momager" (mother/manager), Alice, respectively.
Now, I know this shouldn't matter, but I'm almost certain that this will be the only review you'll read (at least today) written by someone who not only has experience in the boxing ring -- I have an 0-1 life-time record after losing my first, last and only "match" at the furious fists of infamous German director Uwe Boll -- but I'm also from Massachusetts, having grown up less than 30 miles from Lowell, which is a good place to start with this review.
"The Fighter" does for Lowell what Ben Affleck's "The Town" did for Charlestown earlier this year. It's about a place where family and loyalty actually mean something, and sometimes different things, too.
Variety's Stuart Oldham tweeted after the screening that "'The Fighter' is all about the Wards, not the boxing," which I completely agree with, since the movie's primary concern is the relationship between Micky and Dickie, the brother he's always idolized but can't afford to wait around for any longer. This is a relatively small movie, comparative in scope to, pardon the lazy comparison, Darren Aronofsky's similarly-themed "The Wrestler."
The screenplay, credited to Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson, pulls off a delicate balancing act of good, old-fashioned sports drama and gritty character study.
Micky's main conflict is that his family is holding back his career. They're not getting him the fights he needs to win in order to get a title shot, and the when they do get him a fight, they put their own greed ahead his health. He's the family's gravy train and while he wants to provide for them, he's also the one taking all the risk.
Alice doesn't think twice about sending him into the ring to fight a guy who is 20 lbs. heavier than him, she just knows that if he doesn't fight, he doesn't get paid.
