The Fighter
(R16), 130 minutes, 4/5 The best "sports" movies rarely focus on sport itself.
Rather, the sporting exploits of the film's protagonist are simply used as a backdrop to some far more significant and gripping storyline.
This pattern is repeated in director David Russell's latest effort, The Fighter, to great effect.
Although The Fighterrecounts the true story of the early career of boxer "Irish" Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) and his brother, Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale), there's no need to be a boxing fan to enjoy this film.
Micky's efforts to move up the boxing ranks are constantly thwarted by two of the people closest to him - his mother, Alice, whose efforts as Micky's manager serve only to stifle his career, and Dicky, whose drug addiction and consequent erratic behaviour prevent him from properly fulfilling his duties as Micky's trainer.
The Fighter is a superb film.
Gritty, sombre and well-paced. It tells a fantastic tale, brought brilliantly to screen by superb performances.
Wahlberg does well as Micky Ward - his Ward is no musclebound, slack-jawed pugilist, but a deeply tormented man, torn between his desire to take his boxing career forward and loyalty to his family.
Amy Adams shines as Ward's girlfriend Charlene, but the real star of the show is Bale, who is nothing short of brilliant as Dicky Eklund.
It would have taken quite an actor to adequately portray the washed-up former boxing pro, now addicted to drugs and seemingly surviving off a pair of deluded fantasies - one, a memory of knocking down Sugar Ray Leonard when the pair fought and, the second, the idea of one day making a comeback.
Yet Bale does the job effortlessly, bringing Eklund alive with every slurred piece of speech, every drugs binge, every sudden outburst of violence.
This film's host of Academy Award nominations are well-deserved, in particular Bale's for Best Supporting Actor.
The Fighter is a knockout on all fronts.
