Friday, November 19, 2010

A Brief Review Of The Popular Movie The Wrestler

By Sylvia Barrett

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's performance is the heart, the soul and the body of the film. He takes some real bumps and went through training to actually learn how to wrestle. That's really him in the ring. He had a stunt double for a few shots, but for the most part, that's really him. Randy the Ram is an incredible and very human character.

Randy's lifestyle has been self destructive, and it's cost him everything. He's paying the price, having lost touch with his daughter, and while he and the boys at the locker room are always close, he really doesn't have any true, close friends.

The movie will rip your heart out, showing Randy as he is in a light that it as once both humane, and unforgiving. He's not given a pass for the mistakes he's made, but he's shown as a real human being, whose feelings are valid. He's made mistakes, but that doesn't make him a monster, and he's shown in a loving light, if not an always flattering one.

Rourke is, again, incredible here. He lived this role in life for years, suffering through all sorts of problems and losing his place in the Hollywood pecking order. This movie is Rourke's comeback, his story, just as it is Randy's. Rourke didn't just play this role, he was this role. Interestingly, Nicholas Cage was offered the job and dropped out because he knew his friend Rourke wanted it, and, in fact, would have done a better job.

This resulted in a smaller budget which actually helps to improve the movie. Randy wrestles for smaller crowds, not packed stadiums with the WWE, so this really drives home his passion. Whether he's wrestling for a few dozen or a few thousand, he always gives every last drop of sweat and blood to the ring.

It's an old story with cliche characters, but it never feels that way. Because it's imbued with such humanity and honesty, it feels fresh and new, despite the fact that we've all heard of the down-on-his-luck fighter before.

When you hear the acoustic song by Springsteen at the end, take a moment to reflect on what the ending really means. This movie has a lot of depth, and sits somewhere between Rocky and Raging Bull in the pantheon of sports movies. It is, at once, heart breaking and heart warming, both upbeat and tragic, and the ending really drives that home. At the very least, it's a story you'll never forget.

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