This film actually won a ton of awards including top awards for Best supporting actor (Christian Bale) and Best supporting actress (Melissa Leo.) Mark Wahlberg, unsurprisingly, doesn't get so much as a "good job" from the awards community and it just kind of reminded me of that year where Titanic was winning everything except Best Actor, because Leo wasn't nominated for any of them.

on to The Fighter

[sournce](https://cache.desktopnexus.com/thumbseg/536/536513-bigthumbnail.jpg)

This is the true story of the boxing career of Mickey Ward (Wahlberg) and the troubled career of his half-brother Dicky Eklund (Bale)who is one of his trainers. Dicky was a higher-tier boxer as well, but never achieved much in the way of fame because he was seen as a "stepping stone" opponent that was good enough to be challenging, but not good enough to be champ.

[source](https://www.moviesteve.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/the-fighter-mark-wahlberg-christian-bale.jpg)

The Role of Dicky is played phenomenally well by Christian, who just seems to be a master of accents as he absolutely nails the Boston accent despite being British. He also transformed his body again and his ability to put on (and then lose) muscle is awe-inspiring. He won the Best Supporting Actor award for his role in this move and he truly deserved it. I don't want to reveal too much about the plot but let's just say it is all about boxing, family, drugs, and money.

[source](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2010/12/10/arts/10FIGHTER-1/SUB-FIGHTER-jumbo.jpg)

Wahlberg is actually the "star" of the movie as far as who is on screen the most, but it is quite easy to see that Mark is a little bit out of his league with the likes of Bale and the women who play Mark's sisters. It just kind of seems Wahlberg is in the wrong film. This is not to say that he does poorly in his portrayal as Mickey - he does just fine he just seems out of place.

Wahlberg was a producer on this film which for me begs the question: "Did Wahlberg set this all up in an attempt to get taken more seriously as an actor?" It doesn't matter to me if he did because this movie is great.

I don't think I am being unfair just because I tend to enjoy boxing films by giving this one high marks. Even though it is a bit artsy they seem to do this just enough to be considered by the academy. The rest of the time the action moves quickly and the story is done so well that it will bring a full range of emotions in the viewer. This movie is both inspiring and depressing at the same time and the fact that it is a true story, makes that even better.