I'd been wanting to see The Wrestler for a while and had been disappointed not to catch it at the cinema. Well you lucky, lucky folk are now being treated to my thoughts on the matter. And consider yourselves extra lucky - I've only been back in the house a matter of minutes and am blogging whilst I wait for my yummy new potatoes (grown by daddy) to boil.
Starring Mickey Rourke as a wrestler who has seen better days and directed by Darren Aronofsky, The Wrestler is something of a symbolic moment for Rourke with art imitating life as the Hollywood miscreant makes good in a career defining role. Living in a a trailer, estranged from his daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) and working on a deli counter, Randy 'The Ram' Robinson is a tragic (if beefy) figure who was a contender and still wants to be. Life and age are taking their toll but he feels the only place he belongs is in the ring with two pounds of crap being kicked out of him. Well it beats the disappointment of the real world, right?! His friendship with Marisa Tomei's stripper Cassidy is heavily symbolic - both the wrong side of 40 for their professions, they are slowly being left on the shelf. Or in the case of Randy's action figure toy, the dashboard.
Surprisingly straightforward compared to Aronofsky's other projects, this movie is nothing if not realistic. Those who loved the contentious The Fountain or the frankly gruelling Requiem for a Dream (me!) may find it surprising that Aronofsky has chosen to tell a story with such broad brush strokes. And which is aesthetically so much plainer. However the movie is very affecting. Rourke and Tomei are fantastic as two disappointed and flawed people who refuse to beaten completely and really do pull the whole movie together, they are so believable. Neither are heroic exactly but they have their passions - he his sport, she her son - and these are the focus of their lives. In Randy's case this is to the detriment of having a more loving existence with either his daughter or Cassidy, but his fatal flaw is as tragic as anything portrayed in Shakespeare even if less highbrow. Randy's last speech to his fans is truly touching; as much a tribute to those who believed in Rourke having another shot at acting success perhaps, as his character's acolytes. It conveys the realism of a man determined to follow his path at the expense of what could be a better life and although this movie is hardly what you would call cheerful, it is definitely something you should watch for the sheer power of its performances.
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