Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Melissa Leo, Jack McGee
Running time: 115 mins
Rating: ***

ROCKY, Million Dollar Baby and Raging Bull have shown that boxing movies can pull in cinema audiences. The decidedly downbeat The Fighter will have a harder job despite the Oscar nominations (seven) and awards collected from other sources so far.

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Our working class hero Micky (Wahlberg) defies the odds and tensions within his family on the championship trail. Part of the problem rests with his half-brother Dicky (Bale, Method acting like mad) who famously knocked down Sugar Ray Leonard and then went bad, losing everything through crime and drugs.

Micky keeps it in the family by having Dicky train him and his mother Alice (Melissa Leo) manage him. They hold him back more than anything, setting him up in poor fights for even poorer rewards.

It takes his new girlfriend Charlene (Adams), who works in a local bar, to encourage Micky to follow his dreams.

Soon a shot at the world light welterweight title is within his grasp.

Wahlberg looks good in the ring – he’s been in training for the movie for years – but can’t compete with Bale and Leo when it comes to shouting and overacting, which director David O Russell does nothing to dissuade.