The Fighter: OK, Enough With the Boston Movies
Here's a trailer for David O. Russell's boxing drama The Fighter, a modern Cinderella Man, the based-on-a-true-story tale of a scrappy, over-the-hill boxer who beats the odds. It seems full of that Boston blue collar-gawking that's gotten a bit old.
What with Good Will Hunting and Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone and What Doesn't Kill You and Southie and The Town and now this. We get it, Southie and Charlestown are grandly gritty and picturesquely depressed and isn't there a hard-won nobility in all that. Yes, OK, moving on. I love my hometown and certain neighborhoods certainly have had their troubles that are worth exploring, but it's all gotten to be a bit much, hasn't it? It's not that I think a bunch of millionaires coming into town and acting all poor is really the problem, that happens all the time, with many cities. It's just the trend of it that's irksome. Boston's a great place to film movies, tax breaks and pretty buildings and all that, but it's not entirely some cobbled shantytown full of operatically grimy people running around shooting guns for Family and Honor. If they're shooting guns it's usually because of, y'know, poverty and stuff. So, OK. Boston has had its day in the movie sun, let's move on for a little while, can we?
As for the movie, sure, whatever, it looks fine. Mark Wahlberg's high-pitched timbre can be a little uncomfortable sometimes, and it seems on grand display here. Christian Bale is always so angry and it's become a little frightening. And Amy Adams... well, it's funny to see such a nice, chipper bunny put on some dirty makeup and drop her Rs. David O. Russell is an adept filmmaker, though, so this one is probably worth a look. And at least it has an air of uplift about it!
Next up in the Boston-o-Rama we have The Company Men which is, shockingly, not about guns and Southie! But it is about Kevin Costner with an accent, so.