Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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84 of 94 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The resurrection of Mickey Rourke, March 4, 2009
I've been a wrestling fan since the '70s and it's one of those things that I have to hide from most people because they think it's a joke or they just don't understand what it's appeal is. Then came along "The Wrestler" and now my friends are asking me questions and taking interest in "the business". I saw the movie with some friends and family and we had some very spirited discussions afterward. They couldn't believe that these guys would, for example, mutilate themselves to have blood in matches (a practice called "blading" that's performed with a small piece of a razor blade), or that years spent in the ring will leave most wrestlers battered and even disabled thanks to the legit wear and tear that wrestling has on the body. Most people assume a wrestling ring is a trampoline, but it's actually like landing on concrete and over time there's a price to pay for taking bumps on such a hard surface for so many years. "The Wrestler" reveals all of these issues wrapped up in an enthralling and emotional motion picture you wont soon forget.
Life imitates art on several levels in "The Wrestler". For example, the movie shows the dark side of steroid abuse that has caused a laundry list of wrestler deaths in just the past 10 years (the pressures of the Monday Night War era claimed the lives of countless wrestlers). Well, during the first backstage wrestling scene, Mickey Rourke's character shakes hands with a wrestler that is huge and jacked to the gills. That wrestler died from heart failure a few weeks before the movie's release. Also, there is a scene where another huge and overly muscular wrestler sells several illegal muscle enhancers to Rourke's character. That wrestler was recently arrested for selling drugs. But the real story here, is how Mickey Rourke's character of Randy the Ram mirrors Mickey's life in many ways. Both are former stars, both have pushed their bodies to the limit in sports (Mickey revealed on the Charlie Rose show that he was forced to quit boxing because one more serious blow could've been it for him) and both want to get back in the spotlight. Thankfully, Mickey has achieved his goal of regaining the spotlight. As for Randy, that's a different story.
Randy the Ram, seems to be based on a combination of former wrestlers Lex Luger and Jake the Snake Roberts. Lex Luger's ailing body and rock bottom financial situation plus Jake's volatile relationship with his daughter were definite inspirations for screenwriter Robert Siegel. Mickey takes the experiences of Lex and Jake, along with his own and shapes a character that he was born to play. The part was originally written for Nicholas Cage, but I can't imagine anyone but Mickey Rourke playing this part. Mickey plays Randy with such heart and soul that he truly makes the audience feel for him. We feel his pain, we relate to his shortcomings and we cheer him on to find love and rebuild the relationship with his daughter. When Randy apologizes to his daughter for being on the road wrestling and not being there for her when she needed him, you feel it.
As a wrestling fan, one of the most powerful scenes takes place at the end when Marisa Tomei's character begs Randy not to wrestle just moments before the start of a match due to his heart condition and Randy tells her that he belongs out there. It's the only place he fits in, it's the only place he feels successful and loved. Randy's music then hits and a man who looked broken down and beaten just a second ago, busts thru that curtain and walks out as a superstar with the crowd eating out of his hand. It's a powerful scene that sums up why so many wrestlers find it so difficult to walk away from the business.
Don't let the fact that "The Wrestler" takes place in the world of professional wrestling keep you from seeing it. You don't need to be a fan to enjoy this movie. Wrestling is merely the backdrop for the drama taking place on the screen. Everyone puts in amazing performances. Rourke and Tomei deserve their Oscar nominations and Evan Rachel Wood nearly steals the movie. Just keep this in mind while watching it. Don't get too wrapped up in the drama, because after all, it is just a movie. And movies are just fake, scripted entertainment with predetermined outcomes.
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17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Best Male Performance of 2008 & One of the Top Five Best Films of 2008, April 22, 2009
Made on a shoestring budget by the visionary director of Requiem for a Dream (Director's Cut) and The Fountain (Widescreen Edition), The Wrestler marked the much publicized comeback of Mickey Rourke. Truth is that Rourke has appeared in many films over the last few years sporadically. This is a "comeback" in a much grander sense. This is an acclaimed actor giving the performance of his life, a performance that makes you want to cheer while never resorting to the obvious inspirational clichés. The Wrestler is one of the top five best films of 2008. It's not grand, technical filmmaking but it was one of the most profound movie-going experiences I've had. It's entertaining and powerfully moving, coupled with incredible performances, a raw script, and a perfect directorial style.
Rourke plays Randy "The Ram" Robinson, once a famous professional wrestler now reduced to playing small, local gigs to a small, nostalgic crowd. Randy lives in a trailer, struggling to make the rent balancing wrestling with a part time job at a supermarket. With no friends, Randy finds solace and human contact with a stripper (Marisa Tomei), whose job isn't unlike his. While trying to reconnect with his daughter (Evan Rachel Wood), Randy sees one final shot at the top in a re-match with the Ayatollah.
It's worth noting that you don't have to like wrestling to love this film, although it does clear up some of the misconceptions about the sport. Wrestling is "fake," in the sense that it's staged...But when you're getting hit with a chair or slammed to the ground, it's real. The film does a very good job of explore the thin line between "real" and "fake."
What The Wrestler is really about is a performer who has no roots in the real world. He lives and breathes to be this character, it's all he knows. Only with a roaring crowd does he feel at home. This film is much deeper than its subject matter and title imply.
There's so much raw, real human emotion here. It could've easily strayed into familiar or predictable territory, but Robert Siegel's script does not allow it. This is not an inspirational film about a down-on-his-luck wrestler, on the verge of a comeback who falls in love with the stripper-with-a-heart-of-gold. The film takes a bleak look at these characters and shows them as people. They're flawed, they make mistakes, not everything turns out all right in the end. All of this is handled masterfully by director Darren Aronofsky; strange, since this is his most simplistic film in terms of filmmaking style. The musical score by Clint Mansell isn't mentioned much in reference to this film, but it's really terrific. It's subtle and underscores every scene perfectly, adding to that bleak simplicity.
As for acting, Wood doesn't seem far removed from her Thirteen character as Randy's estranged daughter, but she does a good job with what she's given. Tomei got an Oscar-nomination for her role. She's certainly a brave actress, who looks stunning at 40. This is not an easy character to play, but Tomei brings believability to the role that many actresses would not have. It's a 3-dimensional character that could've easily been a 1-dimensional one.
Now, let's talk about Rourke. What a performance! There's no hiding the parallels between Rourke's real life and the character of Randy the Ram, but don't think this is just Rourke playing himself. I can't express the level of disappointment I felt when Sean Penn's name was read as the winner of the Best Actor Academy Award. Sean Penn is one of the finest actors of his generation and he did an astounding job bringing Harvey Milk to life. But Rourke more than physically becomes Randy the Ram, he brings such life, such pathos to his character that I have no doubt in my mind who gave the superior performance of 2008. It's certainly the most affecting and most powerful performance of that year.
There's a scene near the end where Randy is talking to the crowd and says "...I ain't as pretty as I used to be...As time goes by, they say `he's washed up. He's finished. He's a loser. He's all through.' But you know what? The only ones who are gonna tell me when I'm through doing my thing is you people here." This is the emotional climax of the film. This isn't just Randy talking to the crowd, its Rourke talking to us; the people who still care about him. I'm glad to have him back. He's not through yet and even though the film has ended...I'm still cheering.
GRADE: A
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Wrestler Brings It -- Time After Time, March 22, 2009
It's been a long time since I heard an audience gasp -- and choke back sobs -- at a movie's end. But I heard it, and felt it, watching The Wrestler. The screen cuts to black, there's a pregnant pause, and then Bruce Springsteen's haunting song "The Wrestler" plays. Credits roll. And people leave the theater, stunned.
My wife and I saw the movie again yesterday. And I cried like a baby, again, the minute Springsteen started to sing.
Why? Two main reasons:
1. I felt for the protagonist, Randy "The Ram" Robinson. I put myself in his shoes, saw the world through his eyes. I totally empathized with the man. In fact, Mickey Rourke played the character so sublimely, with such utter believability, that he WAS "Randy the Ram." Because of that, what Randy felt, I felt. In effect, I became "Randy the Ram," too.
Sometimes, when you watch a movie it's difficult (if not impossible) to suspend disbelief enough to forget that you're watching an actor play a role. With The Wrestler, I never once saw Mickey Rourke acting. I never once saw any of the actors acting. It was like watching a documentary with real people.
2. In many ways, The Wrestler is a metaphor for every person approaching middle age, when lives and careers wane, options fade, and a stifling feeling of desperation sets in. Randy's love interest in the movie, Cassidy -- played brilliantly by the incredibly talented Marisa Tomei -- felt it. Granted, too late to help Randy. But she felt it. She looked around at the patrons in the strip club and she knew what Randy felt every minute of his life -- in the end, time will beat us as surely as the sun will rise tomorrow.
Desperation can drive a person do things he/she wouldn't normally do, take actions that may seem foolhardy, react in ways that another day and time might temper. It's a difficult emotion to portray on screen because pushed too far, it becomes hysteria. Too little, and it merely wallows.
Reduced to its bare minimum, The Wrestler is a movie about desperation and the toll that emotion takes on everyone involved. It is a movie about a genuinely nice guy who's down on his luck and has nothing left to live for except (a) memories of his glory days as a pro wrestler, and (b) one last chance to re-live those days.
I've read other reviews here, including a couple of them that condemn the movie's "profanity" or "violence." To those people, I can only say that there's no more violence in The Wrestler than in the evening newspaper or on the 6 O'Clock news. And I've heard more profanity at a hockey game.
Whatever violence and profanity that occurs in The Wrestler is there because this is a gritty, real movie. There's nothing gratuitous in The Wrestler. Even the scenes in the strip club are real. Yes, you will see nudity. But not because it's a "steamy" Hollywood love scene; rather, because it's a strip club, where nudity occurs.
I'm going to see the movie again (for the third time!) this afternoon. I'm going to buy it the minute it's released next month. Although The Wrestler is sometimes painful to watch (one wrestling scene, in particular, makes me squirm), it is the most genuine, un-Hollywood movie I've seen in many years. Perhaps ever.
There's a line Randy speaks from time to time: "Bring it." As in, bring it on. Give me your best.
The Wrestler brings it. No matter how many times I watch it -- in fact, the more times I watch it -- it never fails to bring it.
I can't recommend this movie highly enough.
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