Keller @ Large: Why 'The Fighter' Did So Well
BOSTON (CBS) - I have a confession to make. I did not stay up to see the end of the Oscar show last night.
So I suppose there's a chance that the scripted dialogue got better, and some of the windbag winners started celebrating the fine art of brevity. But I doubt it. I say, bring back Billy Crystal, Letterman, anybody who can tell a joke to break up the tedium.
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But I did see enough before James Franco put me to sleep to appreciate that "The Fighter," the terrific movie about Lowell boxer Mickey Ward, was having a big night, and no wonder. By contrast with a lot of the product they put out, "The Fighter" is Hollywood at its best, telling a real story about the real lives of real people.
And it was really gratifying to see local boy Mark Wahlberg and his co-producers do right by the working-class people of Lowell in "The Fighter."
How many times have you sat in the theater wincing a little as movie after movie focuses on the worst dysfunctional behavior we here in Massachusetts have to offer, and neglects to tell the story of what makes us great?
The key figures in "The Fighter" all have their issues. But their love for one another - the romantic love between Ward and his girlfriend and the complicated family love that ties him to his drug-addicted brother and domineering mother – is what redeems them. It sustains them in moments of defeat. It's stronger than money, fame, drugs, or anger.
Ward's mother and brother aren't exactly portrayed as heroes in "The Fighter," mostly the opposite. They're self-centered, needy and destructive. But Melissa Leo as the mother and Christian Bale as the brother let their humanity and – above all else – their love for their family show through. I don't know if this is what the writers intended, but I came away from "The Fighter" thinking that it was family the characters were fighting for.
Maybe sometimes we do play down to the stereotypes Hollywood applies to us.
But in "The Fighter," Hollywood, for once, puts a spotlight on a part of life here we can be proud of.
You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. and 12:25 p.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.
