pelikula:

Shadowboxing
by Carina Santos

The Fighter (2010)
D: David O. Russell
S: Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Melissa Leo

The Fighter is a biopic about boxers, “Irish” Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) and his older half-brother Dicky Ward (Christian Bale), but it eschews from being a typical sports movie. Pointing the focus away from the usual underdog story, although present—with Micky’s constant battle with the thoughts of maybe-winning—the story reaches depths that make it so much more complex. It’s not just about winning a match.

Opening with the brothers play-fighting in front of a camera crew, Dicky, whose career peaked at knocking out boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard, assumes it to be documenting his “comeback.” It turns out to be one that reveals his crack cocaine addiction, one that their mother has thus far chosen to ignore.

Somewhere along the way, Micky meets Charlene (Amy Adams), a college drop-out who convinces him to take the reins and make his own career happen. (Mis)managed by his mother, Alice (Melissa Leo), and bullied around by a pack of very opinionated sisters, Micky sees his boxing career hasn’t exactly taken off. One gets the impression that every decision Micky makes is one that he was backed into a metaphoric corner into making. He is faced with the tricky problem of trying to push his own career—to be a somebody, a winner, something more than the shadow of his brother—and maintaining his familial loyalty.

A friend once tweeted, “Familial ties—noose and life line, in equal parts,” and it’s this sentiment around which The Fighter builds most of its story and tension. Micky is surrounded by people who think they know what’s best for him, and who constantly beat him up for choosing the other option, for siding with the other party. What he slowly realizes is that what he feels he can do without, he actually needs, and over the course of a few punches and parries, he finds his way onto steadier footing and striking a good balance between a new life and one that he’s grown up with.

While the plot borders on being TV drama-esque, the film avoids going down the same beaten down, trodden path. It is saved by glorious performances delivered by the film’s leads and supporting actors. Bale’s wild, wide-eyed, intractable Dicky is brilliantly offset by Wahlberg’s quiet, agreeable Micky, whose subtle firmness slowly finds its way to the surface as the story progresses. Melissa Leo and Amy Adams both provide winning performances, as strong-willed women, motivated by their own conflicting passions, both of whom can stand their own ground despite being surrounded by men who can throw a good punch.

Securing a few nominations, The Fighter has proven to be much more than what one perhaps takes away at face value. At its heart, it is a story about our own personal triumphs, about taking chances and having faith in people, even when they probably don’t deserve it. Micky eventually chooses the best thing for himself, discovering what it means to be a winner, and what it means to be a family.