Oscar season is officially upon us and all the big guns are coming out to play. True Grit is out next week, Black Swan has had viewers cooing over Natalie Portman and The King’s Speech has dominated the UK box office since it appeared in cinemas. And now, it’s the release of The Fighter, the massively hyped boxing biopic from Three Kings director, David O. Russell.

Mark Wahlberg plays Micky Ward an ‘Irish’ welterweight boxer from Lowell, Massachusetts. With his career dwindling and outsiders calling him the ‘stepping-stone’ for other boxers, Micky seems to be living in the shadow of his brother, Dicky ‘The Pride of lowell’ Ecklund (Christian Bale), a crack-addict former boxer who won't stop banging on about the fact that he once Knocked down Sugar Ray Leonard.

Micky’s career is a big ol’ family affair, with Dicky acting as trainer (when he’s not enjoying life in the crack den), his Smokey-Joe mum (Melissa Leo) stepping in as manager and his harem of sisters cheerleading from the, er, sofa. But things don't progress as planned and when Micky meets barmaid Charlene (Amy Adams), he has to decide where his loyalties lie - in both his career and personal life.

The Fighter is essentially a film of two stories, with the initial focus on Dicky and his drug addiction and the latter part on Micky in the ring. And that’s where the real issue in the film lies: Wahlberg is pitched as the film's lead but Micky is a character who comes across as more than a little dull on the big screen, especially when compared with Bale's over-excited Dicky, who really keeps the momentum going and steals the limelight throughout.

That's not to say that Wahlberg doesn't pull it out the bag. The Fighter is possibly his best work to date but against an Oscar-nominated (and what some people have called an OTT) Bale, the low-key, reserved approach just can't seem to get that same recognition.

Throughout however, it is the performances that keep the sometimes slow story trudging along. Adams plays a character who is difficult to like but pulls it off well, making you forget once and for all about her Disney princess days (which, incidentally, we kind of loved), whilst Leo and the horrendously hair-styled sisters add welcome pinches of comedy along the way.

Russell is at his best in The Fighter's final third and the film really gets going during the sporting action. The fight scenes are especially engaging and the use of TV segment-style filming and Whitesnake's empowering walk-in song really get the viewer involved, rooting for Micky every step of the way and wanting to react with air-punching enthusiasm to his victories.

The world probably doesn’t need another boxing film but The Fighter - despite perhaps not squaring up to the hype effectively - is a feel-good drama that deserves recognition for its lead performances. And ignore Bale's critics; he is excellent.