"The Fighter": Movie Trailer Review

"The Fighter"

Movie Trailer Review

By our guest blogger, Matthew Schimkowitz

An inspirational sports-drama isn’t something we’ve come to expect from director David O. Russell. Then again, if the picture-quitting, Tomlin-scolding, video-game-directing auteur has taught us anything, it’s to expect the unexpected.

And so, we come to his trailer for "The Fighter," a boxing movie about one competitor’s return to the ring.

Mark Wahlberg plays Mickey, an aging boxer dealing with his last shot at stardom after years of failure. But what kind of boxing movie would allow his troubles to reside just in the ring? Mickey’s home life is a mess as well. His ex-wife withholds his daughter from him, he’s publicly embarrassed in the ring and his delinquent brother and trainer (Christian Bale) spends most of his time in prison.

In Russell’s first film since 2004’s "I Heart Huckabees," this trailer shows off a more conventional approach. In fact, the trailer presents itself as a pseudo companion piece to 2008’s "The Wrestler." Aging competitors, family problems, a bar-working girlfriend--it’s all present in Aronfosky’s legend of Randy the Ram, so why would a staunch independent like Russell bother?

This makes one think how close to the actual product is the trailer for "The Fighter"? Russell has never been the most cooperative and conventional of filmmakers, so it seems unlikely he would suddenly make a movie that’s exactly like one we’ve already seen.

What the trailer does accurately portray is Wahlberg and Bale’s performances, which look to be the real winner. Both actors have been in a slump for the past year or so (Bale with "Public Enemies" and "Terminator: Salvation," and Wahlberg with everything he’s done), but Russell delivered Wahlberg one of his best roles to date with "Huckabees," and it looks like he’s done so again.

"The Fighter" looks destined to put Mark Whalberg back on top--just don’t expect a sequel to "The Wrestler."

Below is the trailer. What are your thoughts?