MOVIE REVIEW -The Fighter

It's big movie season now, and here come the heavy hitters. The Fighter, no pun intended, is a heavy hitter.

The Fighter stars Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, and Amy Adams in the real life story of Mickey Wade, a welterweight boxer in the early 1990's. This is a compelling tale of a fighter with a huge heart, a crack - addict former brother ex-boxer, and an incredibly dysfunctional white trash family from Lowell, Massachusetts. Right up front, this is not Rocky in any way.

Wahlberg is Wade, a down on his luck fighter. He is being managed horribly by his awful, extremely ignorant mother and brother. They have only their needs in mind, as they mismanage Wade's career to further their own paydays. This is the story of Wade and his quest to get away from his family, and get with the right people to hopefully manage his career to a title shot before he's past his prime.

Wahlberg is absolutely fantastic as the downtrodden Wade. Bale is terrific as his drug infested brother, and Amy Adams is Charlene his new girlfriend, who has a past of her own she's trying to come to grips with. Everyone in this movie cast perfectly, including the supporting cast. The writing here is sharp, smart, and on point. The Fighter doesn't veer off in some ill-advised direction and lose it's focus. True, this is a movie about a boxer, but it is so much more. It dares to take us into the putrid, unsavory, trash side of the local boxing scene and eventually the big time scene. It shows the not so glamorous underbelly of the sport and those involved in and around it.

It is a movie about courage, redemption, and the willingness to break the terrible familial cycle that plagues this family. It is powerful, raw and well done. Our three main stars carry the day, and Adams has broken through with new direction as the wrong side of the tracks Charlene. I always like seeing actors go down a new road and succeed, and she is a big part of the beauty of this movie. The Fighter with it's boxing backdrop may be a bit too raw and not sanded enough for some. But for movie goers this is mandatory viewing.

The Fighter. Just flat out good. One of the years best movies.