‘The Wrestler’ or “This film will piledrive your emotions, brother!” (Review)
Directed by Darren Aronofsky
Written by Robert D. Siegel
Starring – Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood, Todd Barry
“I’m a broken down sack of meat.” These are words that Mickey Rourke’s character Randy “The Ram” Robinson utters in the in the film ‘The Wrestler’. There really is no statement beyond those words that best sums up the character Randy Robinson in Darren Aronofsky’s ‘The Wrestler’. Randy is a man who has hit the pinnacle of his life and his career. His life has been on a downward slope for longer than he can remember. Randy is someone who is slowly coming to realize that the glory days really are over and the fame and fortune are long gone and now he’s struggling to get by and barely makes it. This film is the story of a broken man who still has some fight in him and wants go try one last time. ‘The Wrestler’ is a powerful story about loss, acceptance and one man attempting to over come the odds one last time.
‘The Wrester’ is, at its heart, an old-school boxing movie (but with wrestling). It’s a very simple narrative structure. It’s a story about a former star who comes back for one last hoorah in attempts to go out in a blaze of glory. There are no monumental twists or turns in Darren Aronofsky’s ‘The Wrestler’. This is by far the most formulaic film the icon director has ever made. Everything that happens in this film is very much by-the-books and has plot elements that have been heavily used before in other films. All of that doesn’t matter, nor does it hold the film back. Aronofsky has taken all of these previously used elements and clichés from other films and has crafted a masterpiece. This is one of the best sports films to come out in years and Aronofsky has managed to take a failing actor and prove to the world that Mickey Rourke is still an acting talent to be reckoned with.
Randy “The Ram” is truly an iconic character, one along the lines of Rocky, but for a modern time period and a modern moving going audience. ‘The Wrestler’ is his story. From the start of the film the camera follows Randy from behind and this continues for the whole film. We are literally following Randy and living his life of hardship, compromise and regret. At one period in his life, Randy had it all, fame, fortune and respect. He did what he loved and people knew who he was. Now… years later, things have changed. There’s no spot light anymore. The hordes of screaming fans of dissipated. Randy now lives in a mobile home that he owes money on, and wrestles on his time off from working at the grocery store. Randy clings to the memories of how things “used to be” and would do anything to relive the glory days, even if for just a split second.
What really makes this film so fascinating is the mundane things that Randy goes through each day in order to maintain his look of “The Ram”. He works out everyday for many hours, pushing his body as hard as he can. He tans his entire body, and he bleaches his hair. He’s constantly injecting various drugs to help his aging body handle the abuse he pushes upon himself. He is almost a cartoon of a person, but his dedication to keeping up the character of “The Ram” is impressive, and it shows that he’s dedicated to something in his life.
Randy is part of the back-yard wrestling culture. The guys who never made it in pro wrestling, or if they did, it was a long time ago. They seek fame as their wrestling alter-egos, fighting each other in backyards, high school gymnasiums and wherever else they can. These are people that punish their bodies in the hope of becoming something else. Darren Aronofsky gives us a heartfelt glimpse into the lives of these people, and one of my few gripes with this film is that I wanted more of this. I wanted a slightly deeper look into the lives of these backyard wrestlers and their unique subculture.
As intricately shot as this film is, as strong as the narrative is, what really makes this film shine is the acting. Two of 2008’s best performances are on display in ‘The Wrestler’. This is Mickey Rourke’s comeback movie. Darren Aronofsky was able to do what many others couldn’t. He returned the troublesome actor Mickey Rourke to the spotlight of fame and forced us to see that Rourke isn’t done just yet. ‘The Wrestler’ seems to parallel Rourke’s life and career so closely, it had to have been an eerie for him to take this role and openly admit through this performance that he’s made mistakes. His performance as Randy “The Ram” is a legendary, and career defining one. Even if Mickey Rourke makes a full career comeback after this, no matter what role he takes, I would be surprised if he even comes close to topping his performance in ‘The Wrestler’. This was originally a part that was going to be played by Nicholas Cage but I can’t imagine anyone else except for Mickey Rourke portraying The Ram. Rourke puts all that he has left onscreen as an actor for this iconic Tour de Force performance. He’s clearly channeling his real life experiences of going from the top celebrity status to hitting rock bottom and literally not even looking like the person he used to be. He’s someone that knows first hand that hunger to want to get back just a shred of that former glory he once had. He puts the emotion into his brilliant performance as Randy the Ram.
While Mickey Rourke is without a doubt, the clear standout of the ‘Wrestler’, the film is also home to a remarkable performance by the talented Marisa Tomei. While her character, the emotionally damaged stripper with a heart of gold might be a cliché at this point in cinema; she makes her character, Cassidy, a one hundred percent believable and real character.
It’s never shown when Cassidy and Randy meet or how their relationship started to grow beyond stripper and guy-who-likes-lap-dances, but this doesn’t matter. If Aronofsky took time to show all of that back-story onscreen it would slow the film down. Wisely he throws the viewer into the middle of the growing relationship between Cassidy and Randy. Cassidy is an aging stripper even though she’s probably not even older then thrifty-five, but by stripper standards she’s the old lady of the establishment. She’s passed over by young men and even stoops to begging people if they want a lap dance and even accepts being humiliated by some patrons in order to make a living. Randy doesn’t see her as an object, but more as a companion. They accept each other without question. Even if she’s naked and grinding up against Randy, what he values most about her is conversation and the fact another human being will actually take the time to listen to him. Tomei powerfully portrays the two sides of Cassidy. As a stripper she’s out going, funny, and sexy but in a gratuitous in-your-face-I’m-naked-sense. When she’s not working and reveals her true self (and true name) to Randy she’s shy, withdrawn and awkward. Cassidy isn’t just a stripper, she’s a person and being a stripper is just a job. She’s a woman and a mother first. She’s a real person and not just an object and Randy is the only person who realizes it, even before she does. Marissa Tomei literally puts her self emotionally and physically on screen in one of the most impressive performances of her career.
It is a surprise that Darren Aronofsky has made another superb film, certainly not. He’s currently one of the most talented and dynamic directors working in film right now. What is surprising is that he took Mickey Rourke, a joke of an actor and returned him to the top of his game. Without Aronofsky Mickey Rourke would have remained an ageing, disrespected actor. With ‘The Wrestler’ Darren Aronofsky has managed to reinvigorate the ageing box genre by taking the premise of someone who still has fight left in them and putting his own creative touch on it, making it a unique movie going experience, and one of the most powerful films to come out in years.
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Craig
