Hit Me With Your Best Shot

The Fighter is based on a real boxer, Micky Ward and his brother Dicky Eklund and is set in a lower middle class town in Massachusetts in the 90s. I wanted to see this movie for a few reasons. Christian Bale plays Dicky and he seems to transform himself with every role he gets. I have started to like Mark Wahlberg since his Oscar-nominated performance in "The Departed" - one of my favorite movies.

The best thing about this movie is the actors. Melissa Leo, who I recognized from her days on "Homicide: Life on the Street," plays the mother of Micky and Dicky and I would bet money she will be nominated for an Oscar for the role. I imagine Bale will also. I liked the way each boxing match was filmed as if you were watching it on television (grainy screen and all). The way the intense conversations were shot very close to the actors’ faces was effective.

The boxing scenes were hard to watch at times; I was impressed to learn that Wahlberg never used a stuntman and took all of those punches himself. I hope he got paid a lot because it looked pretty rough! The Fighter is a movie I recommend, especially if you like sports and drama. I like both most of the time.