Review: The Fighter

Review: The Fighter

Rating: ****

Nonna's Rating: $$$$

Rotten Tomatoes: 89%

Audience: 83%

Mark Wahlberg's portrayal of aspiring pugilist Micky Ward is understated, subtle, and in stark contrast to the over-the-top but entirely believable performances of Christian Bale, Melissa Leo, Amy Adams, and the seven women who play the very crazy sisters of prize fighter Micky Ward.

Bale's portrayal of Micky's older, crack-addled brother Dicky is mesmerizing. You can't take your eyes off this train wreck of a man who never misses an opportunity to remind people that he once knocked Sugar Ray Leonard down in a fight (or, perhaps, Leonard slipped). He, not his brother, is the neighborhood star, the Irish charmer. Melissa Leo is Alice, Micky's manager-mom who takes the Irish family of O'Neil to a whole new level of dysfunctional insanity. Amy Adams surprises as Micky's fierce, spunky girlfriend Charlene, convinced she knows exactly what's best for him.

In the end, only Micky knows what's best for all. He understands everyone's gifts, everyone's dark sides, and everyone's blind spots.

Nonna's Ratings:

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening price
$$$= Worth paying the Matinee price

$$= Worth a rental
$ = Wait for cable
# = Skip it