The Fighter

Bale turned his supporting role into the main role. Marky Mark plays the dime-a-dozen boxer that this story revolves around, but Bale enjoys playing Dicky to the very full, while not forgetting to respect him as a person. Great swathes of this movie rely on him alone and some moments are memorable only due to him. David O. Russell is another ace up the Fighter’s sleeve and drives the movie forward. The final fight is precisely balanced, the family wrangling disappears in the abyss of time and the actors help overcome some of the clichéd passages. (05/03/2011)

Freed from unnecessary pathos and sentiment, a boxing drama the likes of which we haven't seen for a long time. Above all, the central duo delivers an excellent performance. Christian Bale once again shows what he is capable of doing for his role; he lost a good 20 kilograms since Batman, and his emaciated, drug-addicted ex-boxer character is very well played. In some dialogues, the film has a very dramatic storyline, which makes it surprisingly gripping at times. The fights are by far not the only thing keeping film afloat, there are a few of them, and they are not worth mentioning much. I understand the Oscar nominations, after all, statues have always been awarded for boxing (why not tackle it). Much faster and smarter than I expected, Cinderella Man is an absolute lightweight compared to this. (20/02/2011)

A decent boxing movie starring Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale. I'm actually surprised I didn't get it sooner. It's mostly a drama about two brothers who have family problems and one of them is addicted to crack, but when Wahlberg gets in the ring, it's mostly something to watch. The final fight in particular was excellent. I enjoyed it, but it lacked the emotional impact to make a full count. There have been better pieces, but this one certainly doesn't fall short. 80%. (30/08/2018)

A family drama (in the sense of a “drama about a family” rather than a “drama for the whole family”) that is pulled out of mediocrity only by the excellent Christian Bale (in a role similar to the one he played in Harsh Times). Fighter is a psychologically believable and, in terms of acting, focused film that doesn’t bring anything new to the genre of intimate relationship movies and doesn’t offer any moments of a more dramatic nature. Mark Wahlberg’s role suits him due to his real-life background, but the film rather needed a real actor in the mold of Bale for that role. (28/11/2011)

Already in the opening credits, it occurred to me that I had feared Fighter unnecessarily. And in the final credits, there was nothing ordinary or transparent about it at all. The cast surprises with their escalating performances (not surprisingly, the beautiful Amy Adams dominates), the TV-style fights in the ring draw you in and at the same time provide the necessary viewer's perspective, and in the end, even the perpetually screaming, "half-burdened" line with the successful family gains deeper meaning and stops being a distraction. This boxing story simply works from the first to the last minute. Some mistakes don't have to be repeated. (25/02/2011)