Based on a true story, David O’ Russell (”Three Kings”) directs this new film from Paramount that takes a look at the early years of boxer “Irish” Micky Ward.
Fighting out of the gritty, blue collar town of Lowell, Massachusetts amidst the turbulent family environment that includes his hardened mother managing his career and wayward brother training him, for a period anyway, Micky has to battle in and out of the ring on his unlikely road to success in the welterweight division.
At the core of this New England-based Rocky-like story is the fraternal relationship between Micky and his half-brother Dicky. Mark Wahlberg is Micky, the struggling, journeyman boxer living in the shadow of his half-brother Dicky (Christian Bale) who once was a world class boxer having gone the distance in a bout against champion Sugar Ray Leonard, but then is essentially out on his feet in a life now filled with drugs and crime.
Having done prison time for his crimes, Dicky gets himself off the ropes and earns a measure of redemption by helping train his brother who gets a title shot to become the champion of the world.
