The Fighter

Micky Ward (Wahlberg) is a plucky welterweight who’s been given a rough deal in life – his family. His manager/mother Alice (Leo) and his trainer/older brother Dicky (Bale), a former boxer and current crack addict, treat him like a human piñata, pitting him against pugilists looking for an easy ‘stepping stone’ on their way to the championship. Alice and Dicky pocket the cash while doctors put Micky’s face back together.

Other directors would have made them villains but Russell instinctively sees them as lovable rogues – his camera adores them. Leo is magnetic as the chain-smoking bulldog matriarch, a hyperactive blur of bleached hair and denim. Bale’s emaciated Dicky is even more wild-eyed and loose-limbed – he’s not had this much fun on screen since chewing the scenery as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho. Russell’s direction is as squirrely and unpredictable as the performances, making, as he did with Three Kings and Flirting with Disaster, a tired genre feel fresh and dynamic. Dare I say it, it’s knockout? [Jamie Dunn]