Friday
09Jan2009
Movie Review - 'The Wrestler'
Friday, January 9, 2009 at 1:23AM | The Wrestler
Starring Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, and Evan Rachel Wood  |
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.
Reader Comments (6)
it can be good for some :D
musicisall
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
Stays with you for a long time after. Genius.
I just watched this "The Wrestler" on HBO . In his role in "Barfly" his character was of an alcoholic writer that had sank into a life amongst the lowest dregs of society but still carried himself with dignity and would fight in alleys for respect...... It is this character that most resembles Randy The Ram in "The Wrestler"...... Randy was well past his prime and when he was in it, he was far from the big money...... He did the best he could to the extent that he was willing to sacrifice everything to remain one of the larger than life brawlers willing to be beaten, bruised and bloodied to sustain the image of what the audience wanted to see...... He was trapped by the image, admiration, sex, drugs, rock and roll..... When it appeared he was no longer able to continue due to a heart attack he attempted to work in a deli, sought a relationship with a stripper, and tried to re establish a relationship with his daughter...... These attempts and the results not succeeding resulted in his return to the life of a wrestler that was sure to kill him but was his preference to being Robbie the deli guy and being alone with health problems.
Is the stripper really marisa tomea or a body double...? great movie and comeback for Mickey ...
I don't know about having a body double, but there were definitely parallels between the two characters that Mickey and Marisa play in being empty inside and not really that personally fulfilled so they almost found each other - their timing was off, which happens alot in life.