The Fighter
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: December 10, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
79
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
35
Mixed:
6
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
EmpireAdam SmithJan 31, 2011
An exhilarating fight-flick that, like its scrappy central character, is impossible not to root for. Read full review
100
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenDec 17, 2010
Virtually flawless performances and directorial execution render The Fighter one of the most thrilling movies of 2010. Read full review
100
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreDec 15, 2010
That rare film in which every performer in it leaves the viewer in awe. Read full review
100
SalonAndrew O'HehirDec 10, 2010
A movie so rousing, so real and so full of complicated emotions that it all feels brand-new. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianShawn LevyDec 16, 2010
It's a film possessed of its own force, wit and style, and it builds to a rousing climax that absolutely pays off in crowd-pleasing fashion. It knows what it is, doesn't try to be what it's not, and hits you with drop-dead force. In short, it's terrific. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanDec 8, 2010
This one, as thoughtful as it is rousing, scores a TKO. Read full review
90
NewsweekDavid AnsenJan 4, 2011
Urgent, gritty, sometimes weirdly funny, The Fighter might be considered his first feel-good movie. But Russell's too honest and acute an observer to serve up affirmation without leaving a subversive aftertaste of ambivalence and unease. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzDec 15, 2010
David O. Russell's film makes use of some terrific performances - Christian Bale is brilliant, as is Melissa Leo, even by their lofty standards. Read full review
90
SlateDana StevensDec 10, 2010
Russell has always excelled at finding new ways to use familiar actors, and every performance in The Fighter is noteworthy if not outstanding. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternDec 9, 2010
While the film handles itself well in the ring, it's brilliant in the arena of a blue-collar family that brutalizes its younger son and best hope for worldly success in the name of sustaining him. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranDec 9, 2010
The rousing The Fighter tries a number of risky maneuvers and manages to make them pay off in the end. The movie initially feels like more of a near thing than the filmmakers anticipated, but as in boxing it's only the final decision that counts. Read full review
90
The New York TimesA.O. ScottDec 9, 2010
With solid bodywork, clever feints and tremendous heart, it scores at least a TKO, by which I mean both that it falls just short of overpowering greatness - I can't quite exclaim, "It's a knockout!" - and that the most impressive thing about it is technique. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonDec 17, 2010
Director David O. Russell ("Three Kings") delivers a film of staggering impact. Read full review
88
Washington PostAnn HornadayDec 17, 2010
If you think "Rocky" and "Raging Bull" define the alpha and omega of boxing movies, think again. David O. Russell's The Fighter proves there's still punch in the genre, especially when a filmmaker tells a familiar story in a brand-new way. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaDec 16, 2010
The Fighter is funny, ferocious, sad, sweet, pulpy, and violent. Sometimes, all in the same minute. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsDec 16, 2010
An off-center but exceptional boxing film I prefer in every aspect, especially one: It feels like it comes from real life as well as the movies. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversDec 10, 2010
The Fighter, its heart full to bursting, is an emotional powerhouse that comes close to spilling over. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia PuigDec 9, 2010
Visionary director David O. Russell so deftly weaves the family's story that we, too, are initially seduced by Dicky. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrDec 9, 2010
The Fighter is this close to a triumph: a movie that steeps us in the grit of its time and place - Lowell, Mass., in the 1990s - and electrifyingly dramatizes Ward's battles with the family that almost loved him to death. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasDec 9, 2010
Bale's live-wire performance typifies the many major and minor elements that elevate The Fighter from the deeply conventional sports movie it might have been into the endearingly offbeat sports movie it turns out to be. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinDec 13, 2010
The movie has so much texture that once it gets you, you're good and got. Read full review
80
NPRJeannette CatsoulisDec 10, 2010
At its best, The Fighter takes on the chasm between televised boxing and its mostly working-class, aspirational origins with grit and intelligence. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierDec 10, 2010
By far the most rousing, expertly cast movie this year, David O. Russell's movie takes a roundabout way of telling its true story. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenDec 17, 2010
The picture makes too many concessions to the Hollywood judges, pulls too many punches. But at least it has real punches to pull, because there's honest sweat here too, and a full complement of those archetypes that lie at the popular heart of the genre. Read full review
75
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottDec 17, 2010
A punch-drunk tale whose fitful ramble from Jerry Springer-style family seaminess to "Rocky"-like triumph is elevated enormously by knockout performances. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleDec 16, 2010
Ultimately, The Fighter loses its courage and betrays the terms of its own story by fashioning an interpretation designed to please the people it portrays. It does a switch on us, by changing its focus from Micky's character to Micky's career and then pretending it was really about the career all along. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallDec 15, 2010
A boxing movie swinging in too many directions at once, as if someone sneaked a third clubber into the ring. All the emotional punches land solidly, to occasionally devastating effect, but at the conclusion you're not sure which competing cliche wins. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliDec 10, 2010
Cast against type is Amy Adams. Normally tabbed for sweet and innocent roles, Adams here dons the persona of a confrontational bitch. Read full review
75
ObserverRex ReedDec 7, 2010
These are characters so repulsive that it's hard to care what happens to them, but it's to the credit of a superb cast that you do end up caring. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesDec 16, 2010
Bale dominates the movie as Dicky Eklund, a pathetic loudmouth who's let his own fight career slip away from him, yet what really holds this together is Wahlberg's low-key, firmly internalized performance as a man torn between his loyalty to the clan and his responsibility to himself. Read full review
70
TimeMary PolsDec 9, 2010
The screenplay, credited to three writers, has that over-doctored feeling to it, and we're asked to take on a larger redemption tale that undermines the truth of Bale's wholly unsympathetic portrayal of a drug addict and a narcissist. The Fighter's desire to show us what that awful combination looks like is overwhelmed by its urge to show us a Hollywood-style triumph. Read full review
70
Boxoffice MagazineAmy NicholsonDec 6, 2010
In its small moments, say when Walhberg sighs that his robe misspells "Micky," The Fighter feels clued-in to the very small, very tough world of a man trying to make his way out of his block-and after getting to know his family, you want to help him pack his bags. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeDec 6, 2010
If The Fighter feels like kind of a mess, lurching from one scene to the next as if the film itself has taken a few hits to the head, that's not entirely a bad thing. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerDec 10, 2010
Only Amy Adams, playing Mickey's tough-tender girlfriend Char­lene, manages to be convincingly working-class without seeming either dopey or rabid or strung-out. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertDec 15, 2010
The weakness of the film is the weakness of the leading role. That's not a criticism of Mark Wahlberg, who has a quite capable range, but of how he and Russell see the character. Read full review
60
Time OutDavid FearDec 7, 2010
You can't necessarily blame Wahlberg, as his modest performance is the one element that feels truly authentic and heartfelt. Read full review
60
The New YorkerAnthony LaneDec 6, 2010
The Fighter, for all the dedication of its players, takes a heavy swing at us, and misses. Read full review
55
MovielineStephanie ZacharekDec 8, 2010
The tragedy of The Fighter is that Wahlberg's performance suggests a character who wants more. And yet Russell barely seems to notice how much subtlety Wahlberg brings to his role, or to the movie at large. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle SmithDec 10, 2010
Pity the boxing movie that thinks it can be both "Raging Bull" and "Rocky." Read full review
50
Village VoiceJ. HobermanDec 7, 2010
It plays as a "Rocky"-fied fairy tale for our time: Consigned to Palookaville, a sweet, unassuming boxer with more heart than brains steps up-all the way to the top of the world. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttDec 6, 2010
So like much of this film, the viewer is turned into an observer. You never feel close enough to the action, either in the ring or in the kitchens, living rooms and tough streets where the story takes place. The characters engage you up to a point but never really pull you in. Read full review
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