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 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.
The story is an old one, the characters are stock, but it never feels cliche or predictable. The movie is invested with such real humanity that it really feels like a unique, one of a kind tale of loss and redemption. Even if you weren’t so big on Pi and Requiem for a Dream, this may be Darren Aronofsky’s masterpiece, and it certainly shows a deeper level of humanity than his previous efforts.
The movie manages to warm your heart and break it at the same time. It’s something like Rocky meets Raging Bull in the world of sports movies, and the ending carries a double meaning. We won’t spoil it for you, but it’s worth a moment of reflection after the acoustic Bruce Springsteen song plays out over the end credits.
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