The Fighter- The Pride of Lowell and then some…..

This is definitely going to attract nominations and has.  Golden Globe nominations include best picture, best director: David O. Russell; best actor- Mark Wahlberg; best supporting actor- Christian Bale; best supporting actress- Melissa Leo and Amy Adams.  SAG has weighed in with outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture, best supporting actor: Christian Bale; best supporting actress- Melissa Leo and Amy Adams.  And what a cast it is….. Sugar Ray Leonard plays himself as does Mickey O’Keefe, Sergeant of the Lowell Police Department who ran his own gym and was involved in Micky Ward’s training.  Mark Wahlberg as Micky Ward, Christian Bale as his older brother, Dicky Eklund, Melissa Leo as their mother and manager, Alice Eklund.  Then there are the sisters: seven of them.  A regular Greek chorus, sort of.  They all hang around and repeat what Alice says or say what Alice wants to hear.  They travel in pack.  One of the sisters, portrayed by Jill Quigg, is from South Boston.  Her other acting credit is Dottie in Gone Baby Gone.  I read that Amy Adams listened to a recording of Jill’s voice in order to get the accent correct.  She did a good job.  Another sister was portrayed by Kate O’Brien.  That would be Conan’s sister.  The other actresses all had more regular acting credit.  So, we have this wonderful cast that can speak with the local accent well enough to pass muster with the very picky theater goers in Eastern Massachusetts.  Hurdle one cleared cleanly.  What’s next?  The story……

The story is based on the lives of Dicky Eklund and Micky Ward, two brothers whose avocations, and at certain points, vocations, is boxing.  I will attempt to avoid spoilers, though this is a true story and certain knowledge is hard to put aside.  First, some clarifications and background:

·         Alice Eklund was married to a man named Eklund with whom she had 7 children (Dicky and six girls)

·         Alice and Eklund parted ways.  Alice and George Ward became domestic partners.  They had two children together, Mickey and a girl.

·         Yes, I treat the girls as a group, they move, think, speak and act as one.  It’s very funny.  You’ll enjoy it.

·         Dicky Eklund did fight Sugar Ray Leonard, lost the fight by unanimous decision.

·         At the beginning of the movie, Dicky is training Micky for his next fight.  At the same time, Dicky is under the impression that HBO is filming him as part of the story of Dicky’s comeback.  In reality and in the film, HBO is filming Dicky for a documentary called “High on Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell, MA” that aired in 1995.  I anticipate seeing this as my friend Joanne has a VHS copy of it..... what are the odds?  Also, the guy walking his dog across the street from Charlene’s house is her pastor (Joanne’s, not Charlene’s).

·         Micky meets Charlene and they become a couple at the start of the movie.  As a couple, they are formidable.  Or perhaps, Charlene is formidable. 

The writing of the story was cohesive.  Direction was good.  The movie flowed, no jerky moments from one to another, no strange dialogues in which actors wait for each other to stop speaking in the middle of very heated arguments.  (That drives me nuts…… heated arguments are just that and no one is polite enough to hear the other side out patiently.)  Oh, and a great catfight.  The soundtrack had lots of rock and roll.  The movie started with “How You Like Me Now?”, not a current favorite because it’s on a commercial for something that annoys me, I think.  But, there’s lots of other music and it’s entertaining.  More importantly, it fits. 

Overall, the movie has all that it takes to be a great movie.  Enjoyable from the first to the last frame.  Great story, well acted, cinematography was unnoticeable- therefore great.  Direction was deft.  This movie had the chance to go very, very bad in the wrong hands.  Just on local accents alone.  Instead, it worked very well.  Christian Bale was stellar as Dicky Eklund.  Mark Wahlberg was good as Micky Ward.  Melissa Leo was outstanding as Alice Eklund, Amy Adams was excellent as Charlene.  Jack McGee as George Ward was so natural that if I met him on the street, I’d call him George.  To me, it’s the third best film I’ve seen this year, after Winter’s Bone and Inception.  Black Swan comes in fourth, I think.  With more to be seen:  The Kids are Alright, The King’s Speech, True Grit, the final rankings are far from done.  Suggestions are welcome.  I do highly recommend seeing this movie in the theatre.  It is under two hours (barely) not including the usual

previews and whatever else your theatre may subject you to.