The Wrestler
Starring: Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel WoodDirector: Darren Aronofsky
Year of Release: 2008
Much nas been said about Mickey Rourke’s role in this movie and his subsequent award noms and wins. And truly he does a briliant job in this movie. I believed every minute of it and it was far from over-the-top. He really put his heart and soul into this flawed character and it paid off in a rich and multi-dimensional portrayal of a man with nothing left to lose.
This wasn’t Rocky where the loveable loser goes against all odds to be the big hero. There is no glory left for Rourke’s character Randy The Ram. He is beaten, broken, and left with nothing. What meaning he can barely scrape together is empty and hollow, leaving a lonely man who just has to keep moving or completely disappear forever. He holds on to wrestling as his one lifeline to any kind of self-esteem. And when his body just can’t take any more of the weekly beatings, he keeps doing it anyway because he realizes he has absolutely nothing else to give his life any value at all. He may as well wrestle until it kills him because he literally has nothing else to live for.
While the performance were great, I gotta say the one thing I didn’t like was just the non-stop bummer this movie was. The whole subplot about Randy trying to reconcile with his grown daughter was heartbreaking. And I know it was right for the movie, but it just ends on a very hopeless note. You leave the movie feeling like you got “body-slammed.” That’s not a bad thing, but it’s not really the uplifting charge I prefer to movies I see these days. We all have enough in real life to bum us out, I don’t really need something else helping.
Overall, brilliant performances and worth seeing. But be in stable emotional state or you might lose it.
