Excellent bio-flick about Miky Ward (Mark Whalberg in a solid, if not particularly complex, role), the Lowell, MA welterweight champion. Plagued by his family including a crack-head brother former contender Dickey Eklund (brilliantly played by Christian Bale), a harridan mother (an amazing turn from Melissa Leo), and a Greek chorus of what looked like seven crazy sisters, Ward struggled to find love (Amy Adams in a tough hot bar babe role) and success first with and then without his family’s ‘guidance’. A bit pat at the end but it is nonetheless ‘based on a true story’. Folks who know Ward and Eklund say it is pretty spot on. It’s really a family story more than a fight film and it works. One scene was shot in Lexington and the whole theater broke into applause when they saw the theater we were in, although the movie’s take on Lexington is that it’s a pretentious and stupidly snooty town where people read and quote NY Times reviews about “La Belle Epoque” and where no ‘real’ person would willingly go. Not even to see “The Fighter?”. A good movie. This is my third Amy Adams film this year and she underwhelms me each time. She really is this decade’s Meg Ryan. I just heard she was doing Joplin in the new biopic. That will be her make or break role as an actress. My hat’s off to her for risking big, but she’s too pretty and not sexy enough to be Janice. See this film