19 Great Performances by Women Playing Love Interests

Amy Adams in The Fighter (2010), screenshot courtesy of Paramount Pictures

5. Amy Adams (The Fighter)

The role: Charlene Fleming is the girlfriend of Mark Wahlberg’s underdog boxer, Mickey Ward. She pushes him to seize control of his career from his overbearing mother, Alice (Melissa Leo).

Why she’s great: Formerly typecast as sweet ingénues (see Junebug, Enchanted), Adams sinks her teeth into the role of Charlene, a straight-talking, working-class bartender, with such palpable gusto that you can practically see her coming into her own as an actress. She seems right at home amid the madcap atmosphere cultivated by director David O. Russell, spitting out rapid-fire, profanity-laced dialogue in a thick yet credible Massachusetts drawl, deploying a glare that could sear air. In a cast full of intense actors, like Christian Bale and Melissa Leo, Adams is the most intimidating. Still, she doesn’t lose sight of Charlene’s more palatable qualities – the longing and regret that fuel her anger, as well as her sincere affection for Mickey. Now, that’s versatility.

Standout moment: The first meeting between Charlene and the Ward-Eklund clan goes about as well as you’d expect. After a brief period of forced civility, during which Mickey tiptoes around the point, Charlene at last spills that he wants to train in Las Vegas instead of Lowell. Insults and shouting ensue, obscuring (but not erasing) the unspoken truth that this quarrel isn’t really about boxing at all, but family. All the while, her arms wrapped around Wahlberg’s, Adams projects an image of control, moving only to make eye contact with her various foes. Although outnumbered here, she makes her presence felt.