The Fighter

Of the Oscar bait films that came out at the start of 2011, The Fighter was the one that never really appealed. I feared either a rags-to-riches tale or a re-running of Million Dollar Baby (which is a good film, but no need to repeat it just yet). Turns out it's more about conflict and family, and how compromise is actually a rather good thing.

Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale play boxing brothers Micky Ward and Dicky Eklund. Dicky is a washed up drug addict while Micky dreams his fading boxing career can go somewhere. Micky still trains down at the local gym with advice from his brother and support from his huge family of domineering sisters. When a new woman (Charlene - played by Amy Adams) enters Micky's life he begins to question whether his family has been hindering him, and if a making a clean break will let him live out his ambitions.

This is the stuff of Holywood wet dreams. Family, the underdog, a shot at the big time, small-town Americana - plenty of boxes ticked. The twist here is that the influence of Micky's family on him is doubtful, supportive they may be - but is their small town attitude squashing his ambition? Micky realises he has to get away from Dicky to succeed, but who will be left to celebrate his success if he alienates everyone he knows?

In the end the film's about sacrifice and compromise, which is rather pleasing as it doesn't make everything black and white. Add into this an amazing performance by Christian Bale as the wide-eyed Dicky (for which he won this year's best supporting actor Oscar) and we've got ourselves a film that's not all that bad.

And don't ask me why these brothers have different surnames. I'm just going with what IMDB tells me.