Head, Body, Head, Body...
Went to see The Fighter today with shaney -- we almost postponed our viewing due to clashing schedules but I'm so glad we managed to make it after all.
There's something quite satisfying about watching an inspirational/ overcoming all odds/ the underdog wins sports film, and this was one of those. The story is pretty standard, but what really lifted this film to above average were the performances by the cast to make the story and characters compelling to watch.
When the first trailer was released, the film looked so generic -- I was a little meh about it, but what piqued my interest the most were the bits of Christian Bale we saw. He plays a former boxer turned drug addict and although The Fighter essentially refers to and centers around Mark Wahlberg's character, Micky Ward, it looked like to me that Christian Bale had the much more interesting role (of course, I may been biased as a fan).
My feeling was not wrong: Christian Bale gave a top-notch performance as Dicky and pretty much stole every scene he's in. An Oscar nomination (and win?!) should be his when they are announced later this month (when the trailer & poster were released, all the other main cast members were billed as Oscar nominees with him the only one who wasn't and gaawd, I have so many feelings about the injustice of how the Academy have yet to recognise/award his other excellent performances but I digress). When the credits rolled at the end, there was a short clip of the real Micky and Dicky for a couple of minutes, and it was awesome because we could see how he just COMPLETELY nailed the voice, accent and mannerisms of the real Dicky Edlund. [For anyone interested, Manohla Dargis, who really has an excellent way with words, wrote a great piece on Senor Bale's performance in The Fighter.]
Mark Wahlberg also surprised me as I wasn't expecting too much but he carried the movie well. His character is more grounded, and less attention-grabbing so compared to his co-stars it was quite low-key.
Amy Adams played the obligatory supportive girlfriend role, which was quite a change of pace from her usual good-natured and more naive characters in movies like Junebug, Enchanted & Doubt as her Charlene was rather foul-mouthed and tough/aggressive, not afraid to stand up for herself and throw a punch if needed. It could have been quite a cliché character but I thought she made it quite refreshing in her own way.
Before watching this, I was bracing myself for Melissa Leo, who played the mother/manager of Micky. I had read comments in various places that her performance was wildly over-the-top and I'm not sure where this came from. I thought she was completely believable. The histrionics were her way of being defensive, and also showed her sense of insecurity when her role as manager to her son was taken away from her. Loved how her hair, her clothes and even her walk brought the character to life.
I didn't expect to like this film as much as I did. It's not ground-breaking by any means, but it's not pretentious and had the right amount of humour mixed with the drama and I was thoroughly entertained.
There's something quite satisfying about watching an inspirational/ overcoming all odds/ the underdog wins sports film, and this was one of those. The story is pretty standard, but what really lifted this film to above average were the performances by the cast to make the story and characters compelling to watch.
When the first trailer was released, the film looked so generic -- I was a little meh about it, but what piqued my interest the most were the bits of Christian Bale we saw. He plays a former boxer turned drug addict and although The Fighter essentially refers to and centers around Mark Wahlberg's character, Micky Ward, it looked like to me that Christian Bale had the much more interesting role (of course, I may been biased as a fan).
My feeling was not wrong: Christian Bale gave a top-notch performance as Dicky and pretty much stole every scene he's in. An Oscar nomination (and win?!) should be his when they are announced later this month (when the trailer & poster were released, all the other main cast members were billed as Oscar nominees with him the only one who wasn't and gaawd, I have so many feelings about the injustice of how the Academy have yet to recognise/award his other excellent performances but I digress). When the credits rolled at the end, there was a short clip of the real Micky and Dicky for a couple of minutes, and it was awesome because we could see how he just COMPLETELY nailed the voice, accent and mannerisms of the real Dicky Edlund. [For anyone interested, Manohla Dargis, who really has an excellent way with words, wrote a great piece on Senor Bale's performance in The Fighter.]
Mark Wahlberg also surprised me as I wasn't expecting too much but he carried the movie well. His character is more grounded, and less attention-grabbing so compared to his co-stars it was quite low-key.
Amy Adams played the obligatory supportive girlfriend role, which was quite a change of pace from her usual good-natured and more naive characters in movies like Junebug, Enchanted & Doubt as her Charlene was rather foul-mouthed and tough/aggressive, not afraid to stand up for herself and throw a punch if needed. It could have been quite a cliché character but I thought she made it quite refreshing in her own way.
Before watching this, I was bracing myself for Melissa Leo, who played the mother/manager of Micky. I had read comments in various places that her performance was wildly over-the-top and I'm not sure where this came from. I thought she was completely believable. The histrionics were her way of being defensive, and also showed her sense of insecurity when her role as manager to her son was taken away from her. Loved how her hair, her clothes and even her walk brought the character to life.
I didn't expect to like this film as much as I did. It's not ground-breaking by any means, but it's not pretentious and had the right amount of humour mixed with the drama and I was thoroughly entertained.