Woo hoo! Movie award season has officially started. It’s my favorite time of year. And with the Golden Globe announcements this week, it helped me to make my list of movies I have to start seeing ASAP so I can make the best predictions possible in my movie award pools.
First up on my list is a visit to hottie-land with Marh Wahlberg in The Fighter.
Movie: The Fighter
Rating: R
Release date: December 10, 2010
Everyday Adventures’ grade: A
Summary: Dicky Ward (Christian Bale) is the pride of Lowell, Mass., but he’s also a junkie and holding back his brother Micky (Mark Wahlberg) from being the champion Dicky wasn’t. And Micky is struggling with how to become a champion with his brother and mother/manager (Melissa Leo) and seven sisters holding him back. Damn, that’s a lot of estrogen.
My thoughts: I really, really liked this movie. For the first time in a while, a movie lived up to the hype! This is easily one of my top favorite movies of 2010. I wasn’t a huge fan of David O. Russell’s I Heart Huckabees (also staring Mark Walhberg) but I really enjoyed this. The direction, cinematography and acting is all really spot on.
On a scale of 1-10 in level of hotness, Mark Wahlberg gets an 11. He is the ghost chili of hotness in this movie. And much like his other characters, he’s a little dopey and bashful, but really fits the bill of Mickey here. Physically, he can fight and really looks like he can fight. The fighting scenes are really strong and amazing to watch. And seeing the real Dicky and Micky at the end of the movie, really brings home the strong work from both Wahlberg and Christian Bale.
That’s right, as good as Mark Wahlberg is in this, he’s easily overshadowed by two other people in this movie: Christian Bale and Melissa Leo. Both are SO STRONG in this, just amazing to watch them really steal every scene they are in. Bale plays the junkie, wannabe forever hero so well. He’s living in the past (his pre-junkie claim to fame is that he knocked out Sugar Ray Leonard) and hanging on his fame while ultimately holding his brother back.
Melissa Leo is absolutely awful as Micky and Dicky’s mother, but her performance is amazing as a woman wanting to help her boys but ultimately focusing on her favorite child: Dicky. She’s crazy and high strung and just really impressed me here.
Amy Adams also does good work as Micky’s girlfriend but her role is a little small in this and for the firecracker her character is, I wanted to see more. Still love her though!
Also, be on the watchout for Kathy O’Brien, aka Conan’s sister. She’s one of the Ward sisters and you cannot miss her. Just look for someone who is the female (shorter) version of Conan and you’ll find her.
Verdict: Go see it! But I would rethink it if you’re a little bashful on bad language
I didn’t know this was set in Lowell–I used to live there! I would watch Mark Wahlberg read the phone book while picking his nose. Love him!