BackStage Utah

You'd expect a movie called The Fighter to be a fairly routine, feel-good boxing drama, and in many ways you'd be right. But David O. Russell's film is so gritty in it's depiction of crack addiction, abusive and dysfuctional familes, and other issues, that it certainly stands apart from other such films. More importantly, it features strong, inventive direction, and superb acting. Christian Bale is likely to make people forget his recent antics with his excellent (and likely Oscar-winning) turn here, Amay Adams shows a very different side of herself, and mark Wahlberg has me finally ready to forgive him for The Happening and The Lovely Bones (to be fair, while both were lousy films, his performances in the two can't be compared. He was dreadful in the former and a bright spot in the latter).

An odd mix of painfully depressing and positively uplifting, The Fighter is a rewarding film if you can handle the bleak first two acts.