The Fighter

The Fighter (2010) tells the true story of the boxer Micky Ward, but its centre is his brother. Micky fights out of Massachusetts. His trainer is his brother Dicky. Dicky once fought Sugar Ray Leonard and that bout became the family's entire identity. But Dicky is now addicted to crack and dragging Micky's career down with him. Their mother manages him and the whole family lives off him. The factual basis is interesting. Dicky Eklund really was the subject of an HBO documentary about his addiction, while he believed it was about his comeback. The film uses that directly. Christian Bale lost serious weight and studied Dicky's speech rhythm exactly; he won the supporting actor Oscar. Melissa Leo won for the mother. Mark Wahlberg kept the project alive for four years and trained as a boxer throughout. He won nothing. Darren Aronofsky was attached to direct for a period and ended up as a producer. The fights were shot with the camera layout of actual HBO broadcasts, so they look like television. It runs 116 minutes. Good for: sports drama, true stories, and performance. Less good for: the family scenes are loud and tiring, and the addiction material is heavy.