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Friday
09Jan2009

Movie Review - 'The Wrestler'

DateFriday, January 9, 2009 at 1:23AM
The Wrestler

Starring Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, and Evan Rachel Wood
Directed by Darren Aronofsky
Rated R

thewrestler_galleryposter.jpg Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler is a movie about loneliness, desperation, and missed opportunities. It is not about the big time wrestling of Vince McMahon and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, and there are no Hulkamaniacs running wild.

The movie that kept popping into my head watching The Wrestler was Bull Durham. That movie, one of the great sports films of all time, has a far different perspective than The Wrestler, but they both take place in the minor leagues.

The difference is, in Durham, the Bulls are the major league team, and on the East Coast wrestling circuit - a collection of barely-used National Guard armories and church recreation centers - it's a one-night stand. The people of Durham rally around their team and embrace them, but after the lights go down, nobody considers these wrestlers, men on the way in or on the way out of a career that has more hope for permanent injury than financial security.

Randy "The Ram" Robinson (Mickey Rourke) was once a big draw in pro wrestling. He played Madison Square Garden back in the '80s. Hell, he played just about everywhere in the '80s. And while I recognize that this is Robinson's story, I do wish there was more accounting in The Wrestler for the quantum shift in professional wrestling when it became "sports entertainment," a word coined by Vince McMahon to get around the fact that his product is just a show.

Because when wrestling became "entertainment," a televised soap opera for young men, the heroes changed. The villains changed. The landscape changed. You could probably count on one hand the number of old school wrestlers who remained relevant in the monolithic wrestling universe that emerged when McMahon bought the rival WCW back in the 2001. You don't need to know all of that to enjoy The Wrestler or understand Randy "The Ram," but he's one of those guys who couldn't cross over into the new, slick, more image driven pro wrestling mold.

But Randy hasn't given up on his dream, even if his dream has given up on him. He doses himself with steroids to do what his body can't, he puts himself through hell - at one point being staple gunned in the back and side and being thrown through plate glass - and he takes his fee in cash, sleeps it off, and tries again tomorrow. There is no way out and now way up.

To help pay the bills, Randy works at a grocery store, dragging produce and meat off the delivery trucks. Out of his need for attention, he tries connecting with a stripper (Marisa Tomei), and eventually reaches out to his daughter (Evan Rachel Wood), from whom he has been estranged for years. And all the while, Randy still believes he can make it back to the top for one more run.

There are obvious parallels between this character Mickey Rourke plays and the character we know as Mickey Rourke. Once thought the Brando of his time, the method-trained Rourke was quicksilver in the 1980s. His own demons and idiosyncracies took him down quickly and hard in the 1990s, and after a stint as a boxer, Rourke was relegated to popping up in bad movies now and again, never stretching his wings. But his talent afforded him a fresh start in Sin City, for which he should've been recognized with an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, and his command performance in The Wrestler might win him the top prize in the acting fraternity next month.

Who knows what alleys Rourke went down to create Randy "The Ram" and what parts of himself are shown onscreen. In interviews talking about the film, he seems humbled that director Darren Aronofsky gave him the chance to act again. And he attacks it. Randy believes himself to be a strong man, but he's irresponsibly weak. He caves time and again. Rourke doesn't hide from that side of him, nor does he take the easy way out when the action moves in the ring.

Mickey Rourke may not be the most polished wrestler in the world, but he does his own moves, takes his own falls, and yes, gets his forehead gouged open with a fork. But it's what's underneath those death-defying acts that really call out to you.

Credit Aronofsky for taking another big risk in a career that hasn't exactly played it safe. This is not his type of film, if you look at Pi, Requiem for a Dream, and The Fountain. And to trust a low budget film like this to a talent as mercurial as Mickey Rourke is not the easiest thing in the world to do, either. And once the film starts, it's intimate, direct, and authentic.

Those are three words you'd never think to connect with professional wrestling.

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AuthorColin Boyd | | in , , , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | Comment3 Comments |

Reader Comments (3)

it can be good for some :D
musicisall

Friday, February 6, 2009 | Unregistered Commentermusicisall

I actually think Rourke gave the acting performance of the year in this movie. I hope he is recognized at the Oscars, but I don't really care if it doesnt happen and Penn wins as expected. The Wrestler, all due to Rourke, was among the best 2 films I had seen in 08.
The Rake
http://thefilmnest.com

Wednesday, February 11, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterThe Rake

Stays with you for a long time after. Genius.

Saturday, June 20, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterDavid Castle

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