Director: David O. Russell
Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Melissa Leo
Mark Wahlberg finally gets his dream project made; the story of "Irish" Micky Ward, a real-life Rocky from Lowell, MA. Wahlberg stars as Micky, a boxer with real prospects, but dealing with a lot of issues with his family. His mother (Leo) and half-brother Dicky (Bale), act as managers and trainers, but have too many personal issues of their own to devote their full attention to him. Dicky, notably, is a crack addict, and often forgets when he's supposed to show up for training. In order to become the best version of himself, will Micky choose to leave his family behind?
Before going in, know ahead of time that this is Rocky 2010. And that's not the worst thing to be. It's a completely formula sports picture, but elevated by fantastic performances from Christian Bale and Melissa Leo, steadily-paced and assured direction from Russell, and less melodrama than you usually expect from this type of film. I kept expecting Russell to get weird on me, but he actually plays this one completely straight. There's even a little joke in here about pretentious movie fans, which I'm guessing was his way of telling the critics "Alright, I'm making a popcorn movie. Deal with it". It is a typical Russell film in one sense; it's all about family, and how the same people who can hold us up can also be the ones that drag us down.
Much like the two Ben Affleck directorial efforts, Russell utilizes a lot of "local color" in the casting, which adds a strong sense of horrific realism. You don't think of these people as actors, and some of them aren't. Ward's trainer Mickey O'Keefe is played by. . . Mickey O'Keefe. And he does a fine job. Really, there isn't a bum performance in the batch.
The fight scenes are very well done, featuring shot-for-shot recreations of televised fights with Betamax cameras, hand-held and grainy fights, and slow-mo blow-by-blows. But the boxing scenes are only a quarter of the movie, at most. What really entertains and draws you in is the story of a family that's trying, but only barely able to, hold it together. You've seen it all before, but rarely have you seen it done this well.
FREDERICK OPINES: GREAT
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