My wife and I went to see The Fighter last night only because it is nominated for Best Picture and for many individual acting awards. We wanted to see what everyone was raving about. As we left the theater my wife summarized it best: “All I can say is that it is a TRAVESTY that Fair Game did not get one fucking Academy Award nomination!”

That about captures it. The Fighter is an okay sports movie with some serious flaws. As a “best picture” nominee it is completely destroyed by a masterful film like Fair Game. It’s thoroughly outclassed by a film like The Town, in my opinion. I have no idea why everybody is raving about this picture. Pop Rocky into you DVD player and see if you still think The Fighter is any good.

Problem number one with The Fighter is that the dialog and scene structure are completely pedestrian and unremarkable, made worse by the fact that the underlying story is not super interesting. There is a complete absence of the kind of scenes that glue a film together emotionally, that efficiently and memorably communicate important facts about the characters and their situations,  and which stick with you long after the film is over. Take the example of Rocky for a second – it’s a good comparison as the two films are basically similar in theme and in characters. Think about Burgess Meredith’s line describing Rocky where he says “This kid goes to the BODY like NO one I’ve ever SEEN!” That one line (and its impeccable delivery) captured more about Rocky (both his character and what made him special as a fighter) than all the mediocre lines and scenes in The Fighter put together. Or to take another example, think about the scene where Apollo Creed is horsing around with his people, completely unserious about his coming bout with Rocky, and in the same room Creed’s worried trainer is watching Rocky on the TV news punching sides of meat in a fucking ice-cold meat locker! Think about the way Rocky looks punching the frozen meat, or the look on the trainer’s face as he says to Creed “I think you should come look at this guy.” These are the little moments of artistry that weave a great film together. The Fighter has none of this.

Problem number two with The Fighter is that the fight scenes are badly crafted and the script is muddled and unclear in describing his fighting. The writers could not be bothered to write any real dialog that described in a meaningful and compelling way the fighter/trainer relationship between Wahlberg and Bale. The training he gets from Bale and from the policeman looks really similar to me, and it seemed to me that Bale’s special advice on fights was actually the same idea over and over, an idea which Wahlberg admits he was already thoroughly taught by his brother in years prior (in which case why exactly is it so important to keep the jerky brother around?)

Even worse are the two main fight scenes, which they manage to screw up so badly it’s not even clear in either case why he won!!! Both opponents just kind of drop over from a few punches in the late rounds, but this is never explained. You never seen Wahlberg inflicting damage early in the fight of the kind that would have a cumulative effect. Instead you see him standing on the ropes getting continuously pounded and offering no counter-attack at all, and then late in the fights he “wakes up,” throws a few punches, and his opponent falls over like a 10 year old girl. They are probably the most mangled, incoherent boxing scenes I’ve ever seen. How can anyone call this film great, or even good, when the climactic scenes are botched in this way?!

The Fighter is propped up to a certain extent by the various supporting performances, or maybe a more accurate way to put it is the supporting performances distract the viewer to a certain extent from the major underlying flaws in the film. Christian Bale is obviously going to win Best Supporting Actor for his role. It’s a flashy, hammy performance that is at the same time quite good. He fully inhabits the character of a New England crack-addicted loser, but I must say you never really connect with his character enough to like him even a tiny bit despite his flaws – a better, more subtle performance would have accomplished this.  The other nominated performances are solid, but in retrospect I thought Amy Adams seemed a little flat, almost as if the dialog was limiting her (which it was, frankly) and to my mind Melissa Leo is outclassed this year by Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom) in basically the same role (fucked-up, semi-psychotic mother who is over-involved with her family, especially one troubled, criminal son.)

While we are talking performances, I should mention that poor Mark Wahlberg (who is not nominated) has just about nothing to do in this film. As my wife pointed out, he’s Ben Affleck in The Company Men – the guy just mopes around, looking and acting completely clueless and spineless. You don’t like him or dislike him, and he appears to have no predominant motives of his own. Having an unappealing, taciturn lead character with no gumption is something that is really hard to pull off in movies, and it’s another serious shortcoming of The Fighter. The main character is like a cardboard cutout that the supporting actors fight over, and not only is it uninteresting, it comes across as rather unbelievable.

I really don’t see what all the fuss is over The Fighter.