an artsy boxing movie… this based-on-a-true-story film has the most authentic performances of the season. Dickie (an unrecognizable Christian Bale) is a washed up boxer turned addict in America’s drug capital of Lowell, Massachusetts. His brother Mickey “Irish” Ward (Mark Wahlberg) is a boxer trying to do the right thing and keep the family together, but his mother, Alice (Melissa Leo) won’t hear of it. She won’t hear of him taking risks, or going to Vegas, either, and she certainly won’t hear of him eliminating his own brother from the experience since he taught Mickey everything he knows. But more than that, she certainly won’t tolerate his girlfriend (Amy Adams) who’s a bit “fancy” for their workaholic tastes – the “MTV girlfriend.” Adams takes on her best performance to date, lowering her octave six hundred bars from her peppy Miss Pettigrew performance and other rom coms… to this. Her range is huge. Who knew? Across the board all the film’s actors are incredible, but it’s Christian Bale who becomes the entire movie. Though it must be said….who actually steals the show is a group of local actors playing the seven sisters to Micky and Dickie. These hilarious women can forever put on their acting resumes: I was a sister in The Fighter. David O. Russell directs with real conviction in this third collaboration with Wahlberg. (Three Kings their first.) But after a string of average films (I Heart Huckabees etc.) this is Russell’s well-deserved clear shot at an Oscar nomination. Three and a half tiaras
