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Uncompromising direction, some powerhouse performances, and a riveting story make 2008's The Wrestler worth seeing. This gritty and no-holds-barred look at the world of professional wrestling makes a couple of detours that didn't work for me, but redeemed itself for a relatively effective finale to one of the saddest films I have ever seen.
Mickey Roarke turns in a gut-wrenching and heartbreaking performance as Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a professional wrestler, whose best days are definitely decades behind him, a self-described "broken down old piece of meat", whose body is deteriorating before his eyes, and has a reality check when he has a heart attack and bypass surgery and refuses to accept medical advice that he give up wrestling.
Director Darren Aronofsky brilliantly mounts the story of a wrestler past his prime and the constant and sometimes grueling maintenance involved in continuing a career that is no longer a reality. We see a wrestler here who once battled at Madison Square Garden and is now wrestling in school gymnasiums and VFW halls. We watch the pre-match rituals, which consist primarily of bandaging the body together and choreographing what's going to happen with the opponents, including the secret to the fake blood we see in the matches.
We also see the Ram wrestle with the "R" word (Retirement) and try to reconnect with his daughter who wants nothing to do with him and the stripper who he thinks he is establishing a relationship with.
Roarke is gut-wrenching and heartbreaking in a performance of a lifetime that won him a Golden Globe and got him an Oscar nomination. A lot of the power of this performance I think lies in the way The Ram's career sort of mirrors Roarke's which took a serious fall before bouncing back. Marisa Tomei is very effective in the unsympathetic role of a stripper who claims to be doing it to support her two children and it is clear from the minute you see her with the Ram that she wants to end the relationship and Evan Rachel Wood is very intense as Randy's unforgiving daughter.
The story works until Randy has his meltdown at the deli counter because a customer recognizes him from his glory days...it was just too predictable, you could see it coming and he was doing so well, it was just too easy for him to freak out and did not have to be the impetus for him to get back in the ring. I also didn't buy the stripper walking out on her job to stop Randy from going into the ring for his final match and then walking out on him when she couldn't stop him. She should have known she couldn't have stopped him so why go there anyway?
Despite these minor detours, this is a compelling story that works, thanks to Aronofsky's solid direction. I read a review on the IMDB that complained about the hand-held camera, but I liked it, it made the story feel more personal. More than anything, this movie broke my heart.
Uncompromising direction, some powerhouse performances, and a riveting story make 2008's The Wrestler worth seeing. This gritty and no-holds-barred look at the world of professional wrestling makes a couple of detours that didn't work for me, but redeemed itself for a relatively effective finale to one of the saddest films I have ever seen.
Mickey Roarke turns in a gut-wrenching and heartbreaking performance as Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a professional wrestler, whose best days are definitely decades behind him, a self-described "broken down old piece of meat", whose body is deteriorating before his eyes, and has a reality check when he has a heart attack and bypass surgery and refuses to accept medical advice that he give up wrestling.
Director Darren Aronofsky brilliantly mounts the story of a wrestler past his prime and the constant and sometimes grueling maintenance involved in continuing a career that is no longer a reality. We see a wrestler here who once battled at Madison Square Garden and is now wrestling in school gymnasiums and VFW halls. We watch the pre-match rituals, which consist primarily of bandaging the body together and choreographing what's going to happen with the opponents, including the secret to the fake blood we see in the matches.
We also see the Ram wrestle with the "R" word (Retirement) and try to reconnect with his daughter who wants nothing to do with him and the stripper who he thinks he is establishing a relationship with.
Roarke is gut-wrenching and heartbreaking in a performance of a lifetime that won him a Golden Globe and got him an Oscar nomination. A lot of the power of this performance I think lies in the way The Ram's career sort of mirrors Roarke's which took a serious fall before bouncing back. Marisa Tomei is very effective in the unsympathetic role of a stripper who claims to be doing it to support her two children and it is clear from the minute you see her with the Ram that she wants to end the relationship and Evan Rachel Wood is very intense as Randy's unforgiving daughter.
The story works until Randy has his meltdown at the deli counter because a customer recognizes him from his glory days...it was just too predictable, you could see it coming and he was doing so well, it was just too easy for him to freak out and did not have to be the impetus for him to get back in the ring. I also didn't buy the stripper walking out on her job to stop Randy from going into the ring for his final match and then walking out on him when she couldn't stop him. She should have known she couldn't have stopped him so why go there anyway?
Despite these minor detours, this is a compelling story that works, thanks to Aronofsky's solid direction. I read a review on the IMDB that complained about the hand-held camera, but I liked it, it made the story feel more personal. More than anything, this movie broke my heart.