Christian Bale: 5 Awesome Performances and 5 That Sucked

3. The Fighter (2010)

Bale€™s 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, you€™re 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 it€™s two Oscars well-earned, Melissa Leo excelling as Wahlberg€™s pull-no-punches maternal influence but in this writers' humble opinion, it€™s Bale€™s turn as his troubled, drug-addicted big brother Dicky Ecklund that really steals the movie. An extrovert to Wahlberg€™s introvert, Bale€™s 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 Batman€™s 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 Fighter€™s crack cocaine pinched protagonist. With dedication like this, it€™s little wonder that Bale€™s performances are so consistently mind blowing and his turn as Dicky Eklund is no exception.
Contributor
Contributor

Stuart believes that the pen is mightier than the sword, but still he insists on using a keyboard.