Monday, May 02, 2011

The Fighter (2010)




For years a personal project of actor Mark Walhberg, The Fighter finally came out in 2010 after struggling with production details... everything from getting producers to director and cast.
After it was released, it didn't took long for the movie to gain critical acclaim from both critics and audience, much due to it's wonderful ensemble cast with Walhberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Melissa Leo giving their all on screen. These four stars working together under direction of David O. Russel, gave life to the epic true story of "Irish" Micky Ward, a tale (as most boxing stories), of a man considered to be an underdog, prevailing when odds stacked against him.

As I mentioned, the film has a talented cast, but Christian Bale is by far (according to my perspective) the main attractive reason for the viewer to tune in.
I've admired his career since American Psycho (2000), one of my favorites movies and definitely my favorite Bale role. He's been doing other stuff before that... even having an important role at a very young age, with Spielberg's Empire Of The Sun (1987), but that Patrick Bateman performance really gripped me and since then he's become one of my top 5 favorite actors. His ability to stay in character goes beyond everything you ever seen, putting himself in very unusual situations/conditions. His method acting skills are considered to be one of Hollywood's finest and that comes to show in roles such as Brad Anderson's The Machinist (2004) or Werner Herzog's Rescue Dawn (2006).

It's no surprise for me that he won an Oscar for his portrayal of Dicky Eklund (Micky Wards half-brother).
But that's just nomination out of seven. Other nominations included renowned categories such as Best Director and Best Film, so basically we could all assume it's worth watching (even though not everyone is an Oscar fan)!

I recommend it!


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