The Fighter (DVD/Blu-Ray) - Dir. David O. Russell. Starring Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams.
About as good as movies about punching people ever get.
In the 1980s, American boxer "Irish" Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) ekes out a living in the lower ranks of the pro welterweight division. He is trained by his brother (Christian Bale), a former boxer turned washed-up crackhead, and managed by his controlling mother. As Ward passes his prime, he is tempted to turn his back on his unstable family for one last chance at a title.
The obstacles Ward's awful mother puts in front of him and the antics of his brother-who has nothing left in life but his hopes for Micky-fall somewhere between hilarious and tragic, considering this is a true story. I was happy to watch either way.
Christian Bale and Amy Adams (as Ward's sympathetic girlfriend) are the heart of the movie, with Bale's mosquito-like buzzing and seemingly improvised chatter largely responsible for the film's documentary feel. Not many people who played the Batman could follow it up with a scrawny crackhead named "Dicky" without looking very silly.
Wahlberg is essentially a grumpy-looking stage prop, if a physically talented one. He at least continues to choose roles for which a grumpy prop is well-suited, aside from being rather obviously ten years too old for this particular part.
Underpinning the film is a particularly well-told version of the usual sports story about the rise of the underdog. It's the role of the broken older brother and his tumultuous relationship with Ward, however, that elevates The Fighter from one of the better sports films out there to an overall high-quality drama.
Rated R for violent brawls, and also boxing.
4 out of 5
The Switch (DVD/Blu-Ray) - Dir. Josh Gordon, Will Speck. Starring Jason Bateman, Jennifer Aniston, Jeff Goldblum.
When Kassie (Jennifer Aniston) announces plans to have a child by artificial insemination, it dredges up long-repressed feelings in her best friend Wally (Jason Bateman). One drunken night, Wally secretly replaces the sperm donor's sample with one of his own and becomes the father of his friend's baby.
You'll note I resisted making a "Bateman" joke here.
Wally escapes condemnation for seven years on account of blacking the entire night out of his memory, which pads the movie out to its full runtime. Once his memory returns, we just have to wait out his inevitable public admission and the 60-second introspective montage that makes everything okay. Then these two can get married and we can all go home.
As a proponent of equal rights, I'm always pleased to see a reversal of the traditional movie gender roles-this time it's the man who is panicky and neurotic and guilty of appalling paternity fraud. It's another kind of "switch" the movie pulls off, but seeing the situation in this new light only underscores the question of why anyone would want to be with a character like this. Even disregarding Wally's little indiscretion, Aniston and Bateman have no chemistry, and it's clear from early on that if these two are going to end up together it's only because angry hordes of soccer moms demand it.
It may be that long exposure to horrifying romantic comedies has left me such a bitter shell of a human being that I'll give a pass to any movie that doesn't leave me stupider coming out than I was going in. Whatever the reason, I found that The Switch's moderately witty dialogue, distinctive if not particularly likable characters, and coherent story put it in the "above average" pile.
Rated PG-13 for references to turkey basters.
3 out of 5
