Best Picture Nominees 2011

The Fighter
Rocky takes a walk on The Blind Side in this true-life sports inspirational, a longtime project for producer-star Mark Wahlberg. It's also the latest in a string of gritty dramas set among the Boston-area working class. (The Academy may have decided that one of these was enough, thus scotching the Best Picture chances of Ben Affleck's The Town.) With seven nominations, including those for director David O. Russell and actors Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Melissa Leo, The Fighter may have to settle for wins by Bale and Leo. A worthy contender, it falls just short of a knockout.

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