3. The Fighter (2010)
Bales Character: Dicky Eklund Picking a mind blowing performance from this movie is like picking a shiny object from a box of diamonds no matter the outcome, youre a winner. Mark Wahlberg gives a stunning but restrained performance that allowed the two supporting stars, Melissa Leo and Christian Bale, to net themselves the Oscars for Best Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress that year. And by god its two Oscars well-earned, Melissa Leo excelling as Wahlbergs pull-no-punches maternal influence but in this writers' humble opinion, its Bales turn as his troubled, drug-addicted big brother Dicky Ecklund that really steals the movie. An extrovert to Wahlbergs introvert, Bales performance is so immersive, and so close to the real-life basis of the character that you quickly forget in a good way that this is the man who wears Batmans cape and cowl. A performer who really puts in the leg work, Bale had already lost a dramatic amount of weight earlier in his career to play Machinist protagonist Trevor Reznik, put it back on and then some to play the Dark Knight, before losing much of it yet again to play The Fighters crack cocaine pinched protagonist. With dedication like this, its little wonder that Bales performances are so consistently mind blowing and his turn as Dicky Eklund is no exception.