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Darren Aronofsky’s (Black Swan<\/a>, The Fountain<\/em>)\u00a0The Wrestler<\/em> was my most anticipated movie of 2008. Professional wrestling is my guilty pleasure. I don’t watch it every week, and I never order a pay-per-view (okay, maybe Wrestlemania now and then), but I know what is happening. I also have a few compilation DVDs of some of my favorite wrestlers. World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) really is a soap opera in an alternative form. When I first heard a movie coming out called The Wrestler, I figured it would be some lame comedy that made fun of the world of professional wrestling. When I heard that it was not, but was being referred to as not just one of the top 10 movies of the year but the performance of Mickey Rourke’s (A Prayer For The Dying, 9 1\/2 Weeks<\/em>\u00a0) career, I knew it was a movie I would see just as quickly as I could. The main problem was that I had to wait forever to see it. It was only filmed in cities like New York and Los Angeles for the longest period. Once it came closer to Washington DC, it was still in just one theater which was not very close to my house. Finally, some two months after dying to see the movie, I got my wish when it came to our local artsy theater. By then, the film could not live up to its hype.\n<\/p>\n
My experience at the theater was disappointing. As stated above, my expectations for the movies were through the roof. I left the movie thinking the movie was above average, but I had no idea where “Movie of the Year” reviews came from. There is a good chance that most highly respected movie critics are not professional wrestling fans. Perhaps these critics were getting their first behind the scene look at the industry and were in amazement at what they saw. But I had been reading books and watching videos about everything related to the wrestling industry for quite some time. Therefore\u00a0The Wrestler<\/em>\u00a0did not offer me anything new. I already knew that aging professional wrestler hangs onto whatever they have for as long as they can and, like other professional athletes, have the end of their careers end long before they want them to end. I also know the toll each professional wrestler takes with all the poundings to their body. Those who think that wrestling is “fake” really are clueless. Sure, wrestling is scripted and staged, but the hits and falls they take are really. This is true today, where wrestlers will do whatever it takes to get an edge. They’ll take a fall from a greater height, participate in more steel cage matches or tables and ladders matches, and work when hurt. Many have substance abuse issues as well as access to illegal performance-enhancing drugs. Many, if not most, fail at their personal lives because of how much wrestling takes from you (physically, mentally, and emotionally). Aronofsky illustrated this perfectly in this movie. It just wasn’t new to me, and therefore that’s why I felt it failed me.<\/p>\n However, watching it for just the second time some three years later, I began to appreciate some of what I couldn’t appreciate in the theater. First, I have seen\u00a0Crazy Heart<\/a><\/em>\u00a0twice in between my viewings. Second, I saw the movie in the theater and on DVD. Many comparisons are made between the two films, and I could see most, if not all, of them. The only real difference was the environment each character was in. Jeff Bridges won a Best Actor Academy Award for his role as booze-addicted former country music sensation Bad Blake. While Rourke got a nomination for his role as Randy “The Ram” Robinson, I did not think his performance,e was quite as strong as Bridges. At least, I didn’t think so on my first viewing. However, upon my second viewing, I thought Rourke could have won the award (that eventually went to Sean Penn for\u00a0Milk<\/em>).<\/p>\n Rourke embodied the role of an aging wrestler, well past his prime, who works in high school gyms filled with less than 1000 people for a small cash purse at the end of the night. When coupled with his job at a local grocery store, whatever cash he can bring in for wrestling barely allows him enough to pay the rent in his trailer park. He’s an old, broken-down man with no real friends or family. His sole companion is an aging stripper named Cassidy (Marisa Tomei –\u00a0My Cousin Vinny, Before The Devil Knows Your Dead<\/a><\/em>), who he gives money for her conversation as much as she does for her lap dances. Tomei earned a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award Nomination. After a health scare, Randy realizes he needs to rediscover his life outside of wrestling. He wants to establish a real relationship with Cassidy and reconnect with his teenage daughter Stephanie (Evan Rachel Wood –\u00a0Thirteen, The Upside of Anger<\/em>), whom he has repeatedly disappointed.<\/p>\n Watching Randy trying to come to terms with a life in which his best days are clearly behind him while also unsuccessfully trying to discover his new “best self” is worth the price of admission alone. In the role of his career, Rourke evokes sympathy as a man who has burned all his bridges and lacks the resources and life skills he needs to be a better man. The only success he has ever had has been in the squared circle, and the only people he has ever felt accepted by are the wrestlers he has built a camaraderie over the years. While the younger wrestlers respect him and all he is done, they also see what he puts his body through as an old man to make a buck.<\/p>\n Bruce Springsteen won a Critics Choice Award for his song “The Wrestler.” The song, surprisingly, did not earn an Oscar nomination. Rourke and Tomei each did a fantastic job individually. Their onscreen chemistry was great as well. It would have been a travesty if either actor hadn’t been nominated for an Oscar. Wood was either miscast as Randy’s daughter, or the screenplay between the two needed to be altered. The ease at which she hates her father then is willing to give him another chance, and then hates him again all happens too quickly with too much ease. Her character wasn’t needed. It was almost as if Aronofsky convinced himself that the wrestler had to have a kid with whom he had a terrible relationship. It felt forced. It might have felt more natural if there was time to build up the relationship before tearing it down again, but there was not that extra time. It didn’t help matters that the chemistry between Rourke and Wood was terrible. I never felt for one second that she could have been his daughter.<\/p>\n Ultimately, it is a must-see for any pro wrestling fan, and I highly recommend it for any fan of dramas.<\/p>\n The character development, character chemistry, acting, screenplay, and directing numbers below would have been higher had Evan Rachel Wood not been in this movie.<\/p>\n Plot 9\/10 Movies You Might Like If You Liked This Movie<\/strong><\/p>\n Darren Aronofsky’s (Black Swan, The Fountain)\u00a0The Wrestler was my most anticipated movie of 2008. Professional wrestling is my guilty pleasure. I don’t watch it every week, and I never order a pay-per-view (okay, maybe Wrestlemania now and then), but I know what is happening. I also have a few compilation DVDs of some of my … Continue reading The Wrestler (2008)<\/span>
\nCharacter Development 8.5\/10
\nCharacter Chemistry 8.5\/10
\nActing 8\/10
\nScreenplay 8\/10
\nDirecting\u00a0 8.5\/10
\nCinematography 10\/10 (wow)
\nSound 9\/10
\nHook and Reel 9\/10
\nUniversal Relevance 9.5\/10 (we don’t have to be fans of pro wrestling to relate to this movie)
\n88%<\/p>\n\n