THE FIGHTER: The Film Babble Blog Review

THE FIGHTER (Dir. David O. Russell, 2010)

Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale play Boston boxing brothers Micky Ward and Dicky Eklund in this strong drama based on true events.

Set in the early '90s, the film begins documentary style as HBO is filming Bale for a film about his comeback. We see archival video of the real Eklund in the ring with Sugar Ray Leonard.

Wahlberg is following in his half brother's footsteps, being trained by him for an upcoming fight. Their tough talking mother Melissa Leo manages Wahlberg and also has 7 daughters who act as a sort of trashy teased-hair Greek chorus on the sidelines.

A very skinny Bale (well, maybe not as thin as in THE MACHINIST) is unhinged and bug-eyed, yet utterly believable and not over the top in his portrayal. He spends most of his time in a crackhouse when he should be at the gym with Wahlberg.

Wahlberg meets Amy Adams as a bartender and asks her out, but he stands her up because he's embarrassed about losing his latest bout. She confronts him on this and almost immediately they are dating.

Wahlberg is offered a chance to be paid for training year round in Las Vegas for a chance at the title, but his loyalty to his mother and brother gets in the way.

Adams believes he should take the opportunity and this makes her unpopular with Wahlberg's family - especially the 7 sisters who gang up on Adams, but they find that the petite redhead has a bit of the fight in her too.

Trying to hold on Wahlberg, Bale goes to the dark seedy side of addiction and creepy criminal behavior. We find out that the HBO documentary about Bale is actually about his crack issues, not his improbable comeback. Bale lands in prison while Wahlberg signs on for new management. Wahlberg starts winning fights, but he's aware that it's Bale's training that ultimately gets him there.

With it's blue collar background and salt of the earth archetypes, THE FIGHTER doesn't break any new ground and its narrative rambles at times, but it has solid performances and a great grasp on the genre's well worn conventions.

In his third film with director O. Russell, Wahlberg shows off the years of work he's put into the part and delivers some of his most layered acting. Bale may steal every scene he's in (it's nearly impossible to look elsewhere when he's on the screen), but Wahlberg more than holds his own as do Adams and Leo.
The fight scenes are shot digitally so that they resemble how boxing appears on television through bright lighting and resolution lines - an effect that enhances the realism nicely.

O. Russell has had trouble when thinking outside the box in previous work (I HEART HUCKABEES was an overreaching unfunny mess), but here his indulgences are reigned in - seems here he neatly thinks inside the box (or in the ring) and it pays off big time.

More later...

I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS: The Film Babble Blog Review

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

THE KING'S SPEECH: The Film Babble Blog Review

THE KING'S SPEECH
(Dir. Tom Hooper, 2010)



When Prince Albert, the Duke of York, steps up to the microphone to deliver the closing speech at the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley in 1925, we sense his extreme trepidation. As portrayed by Colin Firth, the Duke is a dignified yet nervous man - nervous because he's suffered his whole life with a debilitating speech impediment.

Albert's audience at Wembley cringes at his painful attempts to oratate in which the awkward gaps between words (or more accurately word fragments) seem to stop and start time. The Duke's wife Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) desperately wants to help her husband, and after much looking for a qualified speech therapist finds Geoffrey Rush as the erudite and sharply eccentric Lionel Logue.

Rush, who doesn't make house calls, doesn't want to take on the patient until he finds out who it is.

Firth is also hesitant thinking that his stammer is beyond repair, but after a short session is convinced otherwise because of Rush's recording of the Duke speaking almost normally while music plays through his headphones.

When the Duke's brother Edward VIII (Guy Pearce) abdicated from the throne for marrying a twice divorced American woman (Eve Best), Prince Albert becomes King George VI and is set to give a crucial radio address as war is looming.

Although it has a highly capable supporting cast including Michael Gambon as King George V, and Timothy Spall as Winston Churchill, it's mainly Firth and Rush's show. As good as Bonham Carter is here she's considerably just decoration on the side.

Firth dives into Rush's treatments involving breathing exercises, untangling tongue twisters, and a hilarious spouting out of a string of profanity in a scene that alone gives the film its R-rating. Even as it can be seen as largely a filmed play (much like FROST/NIXON) there's an elegant film surrounding the 2 excellent actors.
It's mostly set in Rush's study, but director Hooper allows for a nice amount of visual splendor.

In a rare break from the indoors the therapist and his royal patient take a walk together in a sunbathed park that fades behind them. It's arresting imagery that draws us closer to the leads and greatly enhances our emotional investment.

An investment that really pays off.

Firth takes on a difficult role - that of a stuttering man of stature - and infuses it with a living breathing fully realized performance, but it's Rush who truly steals every scene he's in. Rush is an absolute delight as the confident commoner speech therapist who fancies himself an aspiring actor.

A winner in every way, THE KING'S SPEECH was made for awards season, but unlike with such Oscar bait as CONVICTION or FAIR GAME - that's so not a bad thing.

It's witty, wise, and wonderful - well deserving every bit of recognition it will definitely get.

It feels cheesy to use such clichéd critical accolades as "uplifting", "inspirational", and God forbid "the feel good movie of the year", but dammit if the shoe fits...

More later...