The Fighter is a 2010 biographical sports film directed by David O. Russell, and starring Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, and Amy Adams. The film centers on the life of professional boxer "Irish" Micky Ward (Wahlberg) and his older half-brother Dicky Eklund (Bale).Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) is a 30-year-old Irish-American welterweight boxer from a working class family in Lowell, Massachusetts. Managed by his mother, Alice Ward (Melissa Leo), and trained by his older half-brother, Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale), Micky has not had a particularly successful career: He's become a "stepping stone" for other boxers to defeat on their way up. Complicating matters, Dicky, a former boxer whose peak of success was knocking down Sugar Ray Leonard, is addicted to crack cocaine and is unreliable. Dicky was known as "The Pride of Lowell", a fact he and his mother relive and boast about. Now an HBO documentary crew is filming Dicky's day-to-day affairs, which he is convinced will bring about his boxing comeback.
Alice appears to favor Dicky over Micky, and chooses to ignore her older son's drug problem. On the night of a scheduled undercard fight in Atlantic City on an HBO televised fight, Micky's opponent is barred from the match due to illness; a substitute is found who is nearly 20 pounds heavier than Micky. Despite Micky's reservations, his mother and brother agree to the terms so that they can all get the purse. Micky is soundly defeated by the much heavier fighter in an obvious mismatch. Frustrated with his career and embarrassed by his defeat, Micky tries to retreat from the world and forms a relationship with Charlene Fleming (Amy Adams), a former college athlete who dropped out and became a bartender.
The Fighter
