Monday, August 30, 2010

See The Hit Film The Wrestler

By Mark Nixon

If you haven't seen The Wrestler yet, you really need to. It's certainly one of the top must see movie downloads of the last ten years, and everything you've heard about the movie is one hundred percent true. Rourke really knocks it out of the park and gives the performance of a lifetime, while Darren Aronofsky tops everything he's done before to come out with a movie that is well beyond anything you might have thought him capable of.

Rourke really does provide the heart and soul of this movie, and even the body, taking some real bumps in the name of giving a great show. He plays Randy The Ram Robinson, a wrestler who was huge in the eighties, during the hair metal days, and has since faded into obscurity. He still wrestles, but it doesn't pay the bills alone, as he wrestles for small crowds, and he has to supplement his income with hours at the grocery store.

Randy has lived a self destructive lifestyle, and he's paying the price for it. He's lost touch with his family, and while there's a real bond between him and the boys in the locker room, he doesn't really have anyone that's truly close to him. So the movie follows him as he attempts to make a comeback and reunite with his daughter.

The movie will rip at your heart strings at the same time as it makes you feel a little more positive about life. The movie looks at Randy in a sincere light, portraying him as a real human being who's made a lot of big mistakes, but a real human being nonetheless. The movie is brutally honest without ever succumbing to the cruel pessimism you usually see in films that are "brutally honest".

Again, it's all about Mickey Rourke here. The story of the Wrestler is as much his as it is Randy's. Rourke himself has made a few mistakes, and just like Randy, was on the comeback trail. So the result is that he doesn't just play this role, he lived it. Interestingly, the role was going to go to Nicholas Cage, but Cage dropped out so that Rourke could take it.

They might have been able to secure a bigger budget had Cage stayed on, but the end result is a smaller, more intimate, personal movie, and it's all that much better for it. Rourke wrestles for small crowds, and it really drives home the fact that Randy gives his all to every show, whether he's wrestling for a few thousand fans or a few dozen. He really bleeds it out.

It's an old story with a lot of stock characters, but somehow, it never feels cliche or predictable. The movie is all heart, treating its characters with real love, respect and affection. As a result, it's one of the best movies of the last decade, and probably the best performance of Rourke's career. Even if you weren't too impressed with Requiem for a Dream or Pi, this movie is well beyond anything you might have thought director Darren Aronofsky to have been capable of.

Once the movie's over and the acoustic song from Bruce Springsteen kicks in, take a moment to reflect on the story and what the ending really means. Rarely can a movie delve so deeply into issues of self destruction and loss and come out with a more positive and upbeat ending... Without really being tidy or saccharine sweet. The ending really drives home the whole point of the story, which is that you have to do what you want to do in life, no matter the price. - 40726

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