Screenwriter: Robert D. Siegel
Stars: Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood
Trailer link
IMDb page
Two different movies with the same general theme:
As I am writing this review, Darren Aronofsky's new film Noah is just about to hit theaters all over the globe. It stars Russel Crowe in the titular role as the famous biblical character, and being a huge fan of both Crowe and Aronofsky, Noah is one of my most anticipated films of 2014. My personal favourite Aronofsky film is Black Swan from 2010, a movie which focuses on the physical and emotional punishment that is associated with being a ballet dancer. In The Wrestler from 2008, Mickey Rourke does not exactly dance ballet, but his character is extremely similar to Natalie Portman's character from Swan, in the fact that his profession has become much more than just a regular job. Black Swan is about an entertainer who is just about to make into the big leagues, and The Wrestler is about an entertainer on the decline, who has already had his moment, and who has to deal with the consequences of having worked in the entertainment business for way too long.
Burning the candle from both ends:
The Wrestler opens with a long panning shot of different newspaper cut-outs from the 1980's. This opening tells the tale of Randy "The Ram" Robinson's time as the most famous and successful professional wrestler in America, and after a brief cut to black, we see The Ram of today, sitting in a children's class room in some local high school. He is battered and bruised from his latest match against a young local hotshot, who just might be the next big thing in the world of wrestling. Since the 80's, The Ram has become a broken down, physically deteriorated wreck of a man, who sleeps in the back of his equally dented van, whenever he does not have enough cash to stay in the dirty, miserable trailer that he calls his home. The Ram has no friends worth speaking of, no wife, no girlfriend, and no family besides a grown up daughter who hates him, because he was not there for her during her early years. The Ram, Randy Robinson, Robin Ramzinsky or whatever you want to call him, basically lives a lonely and depressing life, and when a heart attack threatens to take away the one thing he has ever been good at, our hero's past finally seems to have gotten the best of him.
An actor is reborn in Aronofsky's darkness:
Aronofsky has a tendency to make extremely bleak movies, and The Wrestler is not any different. This movie is probably the director's most somber movie since the black hole of hopelessness that is Requiem for a Dream, which is the most beautiful movie that I never want to watch again, but whereas that movie consists of 100 % depression, The Wrestler has an enormous amount of heart and emotional staying power as well. Mickey Rourke's real life career has been very similar to The Ram's, and he channels so much of that personal experience and heartbreak into this role, that you eventually start to care just as much about him as an actor as you do about the character that he is portraying. Rourke was born to play this role, and he does it phenomenally well, delivering a subdued yet tremendously powerful performance, that will go down in history as one of the best and most personal physical performances of all time. I have seen Milk, and although Sean Penn was great in it, Micky Rourke should have won the Oscar for his heartbreaking portrayal of Randy "The Ram" Robinson in The Wrestler.
Career-based drama:
In the middle of all his misery, The Ram actually has one person whom he can go to in search for comfort. Her name is Cassidy, she is a stripper, and she is the type of character who normally stays flat and uninteresting throughout a film, and whose only purpose is to act as a brick wall which the main character can express his feelings to. However, in case of The Wrestler, this supporting character is everything but a cheap plot device. Thanks to Robert D. Siegel's incredible script and Marisa Tomei's wonderful performance, Cassidy becomes a mirror in which The Ram sees himself and finds some peace of mind, albeit a fragile and somewhat fake peace. The gap that exists between a professional wrestler and his audience is just as big as the one that exists between a stripper and her customers, and even though Rourke is fully aware of this thanks to his long career in entertainment, he can not help himself from falling for Cassidy. Her character is very similar to Randy "The Ram" Robinson and Nina from Black Swan in terms of profession, identity, facades and sadness, and she could easily have carried a standalone film on her shoulders.
Praise where praise is deserved:
Darren Aronofsky has been one of my favourite film directors for a long time now, and even though I have yet to watch Pi, I do not believe he has made anything but incredible films as of yet. With The Wrestler, Aronofsky and Mickey Rourke have created a sports movie unlike any other, and in spite of its very limited budget, it manages to enchant and haunt me every time I watch it.
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