Fan reaction to first screening of “The Fighter”
From THR:
Tuesday night’s not-too-secret screening of Paramount’s long-awaited boxing drama The Fighter kayo’d a packed AFI Fest audience at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.
“I haven’t seen a crowd like this since I performed with the Funky Bunch!” said producer/costar Mark Wahlberg, feeling good vibrations. “I had to do a lotta cheating and stealing and lying to get this movie made…If there’s anybody who doesn’t enjoy this movie, I’ll come to your house, I’ll cook, clean, move shit. Y’know, I did it to get the movie made, I’ll do it for anyone!”
Only so far, it’s tough to find someone who doesn’t like director David O. Russell’s fact-inspired saga of “Irish” Micky Ward and his screwup, crackhead, cop-punching brother Dickie, who trained Micky for triumph, broke his heart (plus a bone or two), fought Sugar Ray and starred in HBO’s documentary High on Crack Street. Sight unseen until now, not released until Dec. 10, The Fighter had already hit #9 on the Gurus o’Gold and both GoldDerby.com best picture prediction lists.
GoldDerby’s experts made Christian Bale as Dickie and Melissa Leo as the boxers’ appealingly appalling mom their #1 picks for supporting actor/actress. The AFI screening won’t hurt their odds. THR’s unscientific crowd poll supports the buzz that The Fighter, Bale and Leo are Oscar contenders. Interviewees doubted Amy Adams had a chance as Micky’s two-fisted heartthrob, and Wahlberg looks infinitely likelier to score as producer than best actor. “Bale! Oscar all the way,” said one muscular guy after the show.
Sounds like a terrific movie. But the summary paragraph of the article offers some specific takeaway for screenwriters:
Americans — and probably Oscar voters — crave to find realistic yet dramatic fictional families they can identify with, especially ones that make it through tough times together. Like the ruffianly ensembles in Wahlberg’s Entourage and The Fighter. Here’s the most significant reaction I heard from a The Fighter watcher: “Straight up, it makes me want to call my brother.”
“Americans… crave to find realistic yet dramatic fictional families they can identify with, especially ones that make it through tough times together.”
That’s true, isn’t it? What are some notable movies that have that dynamic?
UPDATE: Steve Zeitchik (24 Frames) with more on the Tuesday screening of The Fighter:
The fall movie season got a major jolt, and the awards season a bona fide new player, when David O. Russell’s “The Fighter” world-premiered in Los Angeles on Tuesday evening.
The working-class, Massachusetts-set family drama — which stars Mark Wahlberg as real-life 1990s boxing hopeful “Irish” Micky Ward and, even more eye-catchingly to many in the room, Christian Bale as his fighter-turned-crack addict half-brother — played to rapturous crowds at its surprise AFI Fest screening. Russell’s film, his most dramatic in a career filled with dark comedies, had the audience engaged in its underdog story from the start, while the crowd laughs came too, particularly in scenes showing Ward’s large Catholic family and standoffs between his domineering mother (Melissa Leo) and broad-minded girlfriend (Amy Adams).
The reception marked a turnaround of heavyweight proportions. Interest in “The Fighter” was high coming into the fall, if only because the movie represented a rarity in the current climate: a high-end studio drama. (It’s arguably only the second such example, after “The Social Network” earlier in the season; a third, the Coen brothers’ remake of “True Grit,” has yet to premiere.) But as the months wore on and no one had seen the film, it risked becoming an afterthought.
In 24 hours, however, all of that changed. The early-December release went from a question mark with no public screenings on the docket to a contender in both the commercial and awards departments.
Zeitchik goes on to discuss how studios have pulled back on producing mid-to-big budget dramas. Maybe with success of The Social Network, and hopeful strong B.O. performances by The Fighter and True Grit, the studios will get back in the business of making compelling dramas as part of their overall slates.
For more from the 24 Frames article, go here.
A trailer for The Fighter:
Movie launches in the U.S. and Canada on December 10.
UPDATE: GITS reader Atlanta sent me this link: an interview with Mark Wahlberg on the struggles to get The Fighter made.
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