A few weeks ago I was able to go see The Wrestler, finally. It was the afternoon before the Oscars and I felt as though this was one to watch before the ceremony, just so I could make educated guesses. If you are a wrestling fan or just genuinely enjoy watching a ‘behind-the-scenes’ type of film, this was surprisingly not really what you’re looking for. This film is a drama caught between the hard facts of the wrestling world and the story of a broken man (physically and emotionally,) who sees little hope in anything. It effectively wins out in the drama department because of the emotional effect on the audience and the fact that the majority of the movie doesn’t take place in the ring. (Who would’ve thought?)
As one who watched the old WWF Monday Night Raw, it was enjoyable to see the pre-fight routine and how much planning and thought that the wrestlers put into it. I loved seeing all of their tricks that they use to make themselves bleed and then seeing how much it really does hurt. Quite masochistic, if you ask me. It did make me look at wrestling a bit differently, even though my guy friends told me it was basically a soap opera for men.
The Wrestler revolves around Mickey Rourke’s character, Randy “The Ram” Robinson, who I tend to just think of as Mickey Rourke himself, since he actually was a wrestler who has struggled with drugs and tough times. Although, the heartache of the situation in the movie is fully realized when the daughter, played by Evan Rachel Wood, is introduced. For a fleeting moment you are made to think that their relationship is repairable and that The Ram can lead a ‘normal’ life without juice or being shot several times with a staple gun in the name of entertainment. He shows true grit especially in the quiet times when there is no dialogue. It becomes easy to feel his pain. I was relieved and glad that the film ended the way it did. (I am not going to give it away, but I will say that it was the best possible way to give this unhappy film a triumphant ending that doesn’t leave viewers feeling pity for the character.) A glimmer of hope is all that it needed to make it work.
Just a side note for those of you with virgin eyes, there is more nudity than even I had anticipated even with the knowledge that Marisa Tomei plays the stripper/love interest. And no, I don’t count shirtless wrestlers as nude. There are just as many of those scenes.
Tomei’s performance was believable as the slightly older stripper that no one wanted for their bachelor party. She is graceful and the movie got so much more interesting when she lets The Ram see who she really is outside of the club. The draw between the characters comes from them both being such broken people. This is just part of the driving force of the film.
I really don’t think that anyone other than Mickey Rourke could have made this movie and made it with such real feelings. It wasn’t pretty, but it was filled with heart.
Readers, stay tuned for more movie reviews and thoughts coming up about The Watchmen.
[...] not to listen) to people talking about it. Aronofsky tugged at my heartstrings with his last film, The Wrestler. Knowing the premise of Black Swan, I was expecting something more on the side of Requiem for a [...]