Mark Wahlberg is proving what he can do and Christian Bale is emaciated- seems like a natural fit all around. The trailer for The Fighter, which you can find at Apple or embedded below, does a pretty by-the-numbers job of setting up David O. Russell’s boxing movie that sees “Irish” Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) trained to chase the World Title by his unpredictable brother “Dickie” (Christian Bale), a talented boxer himself.
While nothing about this trailer sells a film bringing anything new to this well-trodden story of a boxer who seems beaten and then comes back to win it all, a lot of passion has gone into the production. Mark Wahlberg trained for two years, talking up the film the entire time, all the way back from the days when Darren Aronofsky and Brad Pitt were attached to the project. Christian Bale has once again dedicated himself physically to a role, getting lost in the emaciated Dick Eklund. The part does look like something fresher from him, or at least less on the dour side.
The story of Micky Ward has some meat to it, and a number of interesting filmmaker and artists have seen something in it worth telling, so here’s hoping it turns out to be something great.
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