Rachel's Sunday Cinema

Hello Everyone :-)

This week on ‘Rachel’s Sunday Cinema’ I went to see ‘The Fighter’. If you haven’t seen it yet never fear, I’ll endeavour to make this mini review as spoiler free as possible

The premise for the story is two brothers, both boxers, the elder (Dicky) is famous for knocking down ‘Sugar Ray Leonard’ several years previous and is now addicted to crack and the younger (Micky) has a reputation for being a ‘stepping stone’ for other boxers to get on and lives with the constant reminder of Dicky’s one time success. The story is that of Micky’s road from his brother’s shadow to his own limelight.

Kudos has to go to Sheila Jaffe who did the casting for this film. It’s genius. Every member of the cast is great and really inhabit the characters they portray. Christian Bale properly cranks it up to 11 as Dicky Eklund, I hate to use this word but his character goes on a ‘journey’ and Bale gives a performance that takes you on a ride so hectic Alton Towers would be proud to have it in their park. Prior to shooting the role had Matt Damon and Brad Pitt’s names attached to it but when I came out after seeing it I felt like Bale was the only man for the job.

On the flipside of that is Mark ‘The Muscles’ Wahlberg’s performance as Micky Ward. We’ll get the aesthetics out of the way first. He looks AMAZING! I was never one for men with muscles but after seeing this I’ve changed my mind. He’s been training since 2005 for this role which speaks volumes about his dedication to the story. He pushed this project more than anyone else, sending scripts to directors and waving his fee for the film. It’s clearly a project he cares about. His performance is as good as Christian Bale’s but for very different reasons. It's so reined in. Micky’s restrained emotional turmoil is palpable when you’re watching, he’s a man who clearly loves his family but knows they’re holding him back.

Melissa Leo is great as the brother’s Mother and Micky’s manager, Alice. She embodies every reason why families shouldn’t work together.  She and the group of actresses that play the boys 7 sisters make a terrifying team that reminded me of the witches of Eastwick or the Harpies.

The girl of a thousand roles, Amy Adams once again proves how great she is. I’m going to struggle to find a female character in any film this year that I’ll like as much as Charlene. Plus Amy Adams is going to be in the new Muppets film and that pretty much makes it impossible for me not to like her.

Ironically for a boxing film, the actual boxing fight scenes are the least convincing parts of it. Also they did that thing where they show the actual people that the story’s about right at the end in the credits, which kind of spoilt it a little bit for me. Those bits are a bit dodgy but the rest of the film is really well put together.

I liked it very much, it’s totally character driven film that made me care about boxing, which is no mean feat :-)

Hopefully this week I’ll get to see Gnomeo and Juliet which I’ll be honest, I’ve been excited about since I first saw the trailer, mainly to see Ozzy Osbourne do the voice of a ornamental garden deer.

Goodbye till next time :-)
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