1. It's funny how there was a Christian Bale backlash around awards season talking about how he played Dicky Eklund over the top. I don't know, the guy was a crackhead, and if you have ever seen footage of the real guy, he is a kook. As Eklund, Bale was never less than interesting. The movie usually benefitted when he was on the screen. Now, I guess an argument can be made that that shouldn't be what being a great "supporting actor" is about. But, for me, I thought it was a great performance. Plus, if anyone deserves one of these performances, it's Bale. He has been playing the anchor to a wildman performance since, what, American Psycho?
2. As for Melissa Leo, she showed that she was able to be funny, heartfelt, intense, and a lot of other qualities that define a great actress. I have always been a fan, even when she is on TV, such as her current role on HBO's Treme. Still, coming out of watching the movie, I thought that the reception of her performance may have been a little overblown. Basically, I think the hair, the accent, and the clothes did most of the performance for her.
3. If anyone should have left the Oscar ceremony with an award, it probably should have been Amy Adams. For an actress who has mostly been known for cutesy thus far in her career, she delivered a performance with attitude, intensity, and, yes, sex appeal. I never thought I would be able to believe her as a bartender from the rough part of town, but I did.
4. While I'm at it, I just want to give both Adams and director David O. Russell props for being willing to show the character as a real woman. By this, I mean, in her less abundantly clad scenes, Adams didn't look like a stick-thin supermodel, but rather she was rocking some serious heft. Sorry, but seeing a movie actress who is willing to sport a little back fat during a sex scene is pretty much tantamount to seeing an anteater singing "Sweet Caroline" at your local watering hole's karaoke night. It's an astounding sight.
5. Kudos to Mark Wahlberg for serving as the anchor of the piece with an understated performance that wasn't going to garner any awards, but kept the movie from becoming a veritable rogue's gallery of freak-show scenery-chewing. If Wahlberg had sought to match the volume that his fellow actors were playing at, this film would not have worked at all. But with Wahlberg going low-key, it served as a normal guy trying to stay grounded while surrounded by a gaggle of attention-seeking misfits.
6. Man, Micky Ward's sisters really must have been insulted to see how they were portrayed in this flick. The last time seven ladies this ugly were under the same roof at the same time, it was an audition for a traveling circus's Bearded Lady act.
7. Sugar Ray Leonard? Did that guy find the Fountain of Youth or what?
8. When I heard that Wahlberg used his stroke at HBO to shoot the fight scenes with the same cameras that the cable network uses to record its boxing matches, I thought it might be a little distracting. When I watch a film, I don't want something that matches a visual that I can get on my TV at home. I want something...bigger. But it worked well enough. The fights were pretty well choreographed and authentic as well. While, it may not have been the balletic violence of Raging Bull, they were certainly north of Rocky's wild haymakers.
9. This may have been director David O. Russell's most mainstream film, but it was not without flourishes. I enjoyed the flashback sequences done in the style of home movies, and the interview set-up that bookended the film (which appeared to be shot on video with production values that mirrored an 80s porn film) offered an interesting look into the relationship of the two brothers. Bale really took advantage of the last part to show his final acceptance that his brother had eclipsed his accomplishments in the ring. It was really touching stuff.
10. The film was not quite The Social Network (which I would still rank as my best film of 2010), but it is up there. Great fun! Wonderful drama applied to a basic underdog story. Terrific performances. I can't really think of any negatives. Grade-A filmmaking.
By the way...if you have never checked out a Micky Ward fight, you should.
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