4o The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Monday, January 10, 2011 - 7A * The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Monday, January10, 2011 -7A My literary lottery luck "Say hi to your mother for me." 'Fighter' owns the ring Outstanding acting makes for genuine, inspiring tale By IMRAN SYED Daily Arts Writer If anyone had heard of "Irish" Micky Ward before late 2010, it was for one reason - three epic fights in the early 2000s with Arturo "Thun- der" Gatti. Seven Th hter years older than Gatti - and At Quality16 laden with a day and Rave job as a street paramount paver to make ends meet - Ward was always an unstoppable force in the ring: Two fights of the unforgettable Gatti/Ward trilogy were named "Fight of the Year" by Ring Magazine. So is it odd, then, that "The Fighter" - a movie about Ward's rise from everyman to world box- ing champion - does not feature those epic bouts with Gatti at all? Perhaps, but that keeps with the most important principal for a successful biopic: The fame that followed may have inspired the film, but that isn't the most inspir- ing part of the story. Ward's story may have ended up on ESPN's fight night, but, stripped down to its touching core, it's really a tale of a working man, his poor fam- ily, his defeated brother and his unstoppable will to overcome all those odds. Director David O. Russell ("Three Kings") allows that story to play itself out with the attention it deserves. Ward's (Mark Wahl- berg, "The Other Guys") boxing matches are here too, of course, but the focus is on all the life lived between those fights, not on the few moments in the ring that fans often think define a fighter. Much more crucial to Ward's rise, his struggles and his ulti- mate triumph are Lowell, Mass., the town he grew up in (depicted here as the gritty, rundown ghost of industrial urban America), Charlene, the girl he fought for (Amy Adams, "Julie and Julia") and Dicky Eklund, the washed-up brother who trained him (Chris- tian Bale, "The Dark Knight"). The result of the humanistic focus is a remarkably genuine film that rises well beyond its cliched genre and into the territory of serious Best Picture contenders. Wahlberg brings credibility to the part of working-class laborer- slash-boxer better than any other actor today possibly could. Even nearing 40, he still has the phy- sique of a legitimate boxer. And, a product of the mean streets of Dorchester himself, Wahlberg needs no coaching or method training for this role - he was lit- erally born into it. The exact opposite can be said of his co-star Bale: In play- ing Eklund, the crack-addicted "Pride of Lowell," Bale is a long way from home (Haverfordwest in Pembrokshire, Wales, to be exact). But, as well documented from his dramatic weight loss for "The Machinist," Bale takes the authenticity of his art very seri- ously. Here, he is considerably slimmed down from his bulky Bruce Wayne physique and sports a nearly impeccable Boston accent - the latest in a long line of pho- netic marvels from a man who in real life sounds very, very British. Bale will likely snag an Oscar for his convincing transforma- tion, but credit must also go to Russell, Wahlberg, Adams and the supporting cast for present- ing a holistically genuine canvas. Ward's tale is a classic American underdog story, but it hasn't felt this fresh and true in years. bile waiting in a Mexi- can airport on the last day of 2010, I played the literature lotto. I had finished all of my vacation reading mate- rial (for anyone who's inter- ested: a Tom Robbins classic r "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues," Orson Scott} Card's lesser- known "Past- watch: The LEAH Redemption BURGIN of Christopher Columbus," Aldous Huxley's "Brave New. World" and a few archaeology and music magazines). I was desperate for somethingto read during the lovely (read: awful and stressful) travel day ahead of me. Unfortunately, not being able to fluently read Spanish left me with only a dozen options in the airport's convenience/book/ souvenir store. And of these books - including such illustrious works as "Eat, Pray, Love" and the newest "Twilight" novella (yes, unfortunately Stephenie Meyer's brain has yet to be disconnected from any mass communication medium) - there were few actual options. This fact alone could spin off an entire pretentious column about the sad state of the Ameri- can novel, as self-absorbed mem- oirs and a series about an abusive vampire lover-boy top the best- seller charts ... butI digress. After browsing a few back cov- ers, I settled on "The Passage," a June 2010 release by fiction writer Justin Cronin. I had never heard of the book or the author, but the description boastd "a secret government experiment" that goes horribly awry. It hinted at apocalypse, creatures of the night and a female protagonist. A sri-fi, conspiracy-theory nerd at heart, I was hooked. About 200 pages in, I real- ized that "The Passage," to my surprise, was good. Like, really good. Maybe it was the author's expertly executed balancing act - switching back and forth between places, times and a host of intriguing and well developed characters - or maybe it was his cunning style that made me terri- fied to turn around and see what genetically modified creature may be causing my goosebumps. Whatever it was that gave me this epiphany, it encouraged me to want to read the next 600 pages (yes, this book is gigantic). I had won the literature lottery. Where did this book come from? A little internet research when I finally returned home from this hell of a travel day revealed that I had been com- pletely out of the loop. People in It's like Russian roulette for bookworms. the book world have been excited for "The Passage" since its release in June. Apparently the movie rights have already been sold, which includes contracts for the next two, unreleased books that will make up the paper trilogy. It's rumored that Ridley Scott will direct the first installment. 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