Movie #91 The Fighter *2010*

This is a great movie!  This is the 2010 David O. Russell boxing movie about "Irish" Mickey Ward.  The film stars Mark Walhberg as Micky and Christian Bale as Dicky his crack addicted brother.  Dicky was at one time "The Pride of Lowell", a small Boston suburb where the film is set.  Now Dicky is Mickey's trainer.  Or at least he is when he can remember to get out of the crack house and show up the gym.  All this is based on a true story.

Micky is in the mist of a downturn.  His mother, played by Melissa Leo is his manager and she doesn't seem to always have Mickey's best interest in mind.  Micky also has 6-8 sisters all of whom seem to be living in the house with the mother and father.  The women are all one unit and the sisters are never seen individually.  They are a mob with the mother being the boss.

Micky meets and falls for a bartender named Charlene (of course) played extremely well by Amy Adams.  Charlene most of the time seems to want what is best for Micky, but can come off as a little selfish at times.  These are all very real characters with plot lines and stories of their own.  With the exception of the sisters.  My biggest problem with the movie is that I thought the sisters were too comical and exaggerated. 

Walhberg does a great job, but Christian Bale is a force of nature in this film.  True, he had the meatier role but he dug his teeth into like I haven't seen him do since The Illusionist.  True to his method acting ways, Bale lost around 100 pounds so that he could look totally cracked out.  Not quite as dramatic as his weight loss in The Machinist, but still pretty impressive.  Mark Walhberg also had to modify his body.  When he is at the height of his game he is bulky and ripped.  When he is pondering retiring he looks a little puddgy (I hope he doesn't read this).  And let's hear it for the ladies.  Amy Adams must have added a little weight for her role.  It worked too!  She is wicked hot (I'm trying to say that in Boston accent).

I don't want to get into spoilers but HBO is filming Dicky for a documentary that isn't what we are lead to believe it is at first.  When that reveal happened, my mouth fell open.  Another visceral moment for me was when Micky had to stand up to his mother and the nasty haired coven of sisters.  He had Charlene by his side but I felt every bit of his anxiety.   There are many other moments that hit you in your gut.  But the film is not all drama. There is a good bot of fun and humor in the film.

One nice little touch that I liked was that when the fights took place O. Russell used TV camera's from that 80's era to mimic the look of the fights as if we were watching them live.  I think they even spliced in clips from the actual fights. 

This is one of my favorite films of 2010.  As I look at my list and relive this film, I might have to bump it up a little.  I give The Fighter 4.5/5 stars.

Day #20 The Town

I just got home from seeing The Town staring and directed by Ben Affleck.  I have to say, I am impressed.  As I continually say on these blogs, I love crime movies.  Gangsters films, hit man movies, heist films all of that.  I eat it up.  The town is kind of a mixture of all of those sub genres and set in a Boston suburb/slum.

The film is about a gang of masked guys that rob banks.  They take a hostage for insurance one time.  They do release her without harming her.  In order to make sure that she can't ID them, Ben Affleck begins dating her.  Then (of course) he falls for her.

I was a little apprehensive about this movie before going.  I haven't seen Afflecks directorial debut Gone Baby Gone, but heard decent reviews.  I was extremely impressed by his talents though.  He stages action scenes very well.  The romantic scenes are tender without being mushy. There are some really great overhead shots that give you a feel for the area.  The script was penned by a crew including Peter Craig and Affleck himself.  The love story is a little weak, but by the end of the movie they are able to pull it all together enough.

One thing that I liked about this movie is that I didn't know how it was going to end.  There were almost and endless amount of roads this film could have gone down.  I will say that while being a little more conventional that I would prefer, the ending was satisfying. 

Blake Lively plays a drugged out barfly who is a former lover of Affleck.  I only mention this because I have no idea who that is, but my girlfriend says she is on some TV show "Gossip Girl"?  The only TV I watch is Turner Classic Movies.  Apparently this role is a real break out from her normal typecast roles.

John Ham is in this as well.  I am told he is very good on another TV show "Mad Men".  Again I have no idea.  Jeremy Renner from last years The Hurt Locker plays another one of the thieves. He continues with another good role and performance.  The Boston accent can be a little grating, but the cast here don't abuse it. 

The performance are solid all the way around.  There are some good cameos.  I really like Pete Postlethwaite in his small role.  You might know him better as "Kobayashi".  Kiaser Soze's assistant in The Usual Suspects.  Another thing I like about The Town is that Affleck adds comedic elements at just the right time and in just the right amount.  I would highly recommend this film.  It is one of the better films that I have seen in theaters this year.  It should garnish a few nominations come award time.  For more information check out the link below for the trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXY_JvOK63c