RSS
Home
Blu-Ray review: 'The Wrestler'
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
The Wrestler/2008
Directed by: Darren Aronofsky
Starring: Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, and Even Rachel Wood
The Plot: Time catches up to a former 80's smash wrestling icon. Randy "The Ram" Robinson, ( Mickey Rourke) is left with very little but deteriorating bone and muscle joints, a bad heart, an estranged kid, a massive catalog of butt-rock records, and a waning, but still fervent fan base. His only real friend, (Marisa Tomei) charges 60$ a hit for nude lap dances. These aren't the salad years...
The Good: If I got asked more about one movie in 2008 by friends and acquaintances it was Slumdog Millionaire. Everybody always wants to know if the Academy Award winning Danny Boyle flick is really any good. I always say yes of course, Slumdog is terrific. But Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler was the best movie of 2008. At least for my money.
Sure it got the dull end of the mighty Arts and Sciences SHAFT when Awards night arrived. Rourke didn't win the Best Actor award. I predicted he would. He didn't. Darren Aronofsky got passed over for writing and Directing the film. And let's not even get into Bruce Springsteen's getting snubbed for writing the song for the final credits of the feature.
Whatever the case I couldn't be happier that the movie is finally arriving for the home market tomorrow on DVD and Blu-Ray. (with some seriously underfed features for the release - c'mon boys we really could have put a little more sass into these discs - at least a Rourke commentary...) It really is a terrific movie, with two amazing performances by Tomei and Rourke. I know that most of you didn't really have a chance to see the film when it was released in theaters last year. It's time to rectify that problem. Here's what I originally said in my initial review for Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler:
The strange thing about The Wrestler is that it's an Aronofsky flick in name only. Gone are the camera tricks, the insane art design, the visual prowess of movies like Requiem for a Dream and The Fountain - The Wrestler feels much more like a documentary then a fictional account. Darren Aronofsky spends much of his lens time following The Ram as he plods through his life twenty years after it crested. We spend alot of time walking behind Rourke, and in a really odd way we end up walking in this guy's shoes - or in this case, his patent leather wrestling boots.
Randy the Ram is that role that's been seemingly waiting for a guy with Rourke's mixed history to show up and finally take it. You really can't separate the character from the man playing him. The reason he's so terrific in this performance is because I'm doubting he had to perform most of the feelings and emotions of this tragic figure at all.
Recently critics are calling this film, and in turn, this year as the year Mickey Rourke is making his comeback. I couldn't be happier that he's going to be in many more films from now on, the guy deserves it. But his fans know, (and I'm talking about the chicks and hicks that have seen the movie Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man about 30 straight times - another, honest to god, ass-rock classic) that Mickey's been climbing the C-List for a few years now. Taking heavy roles and somehow managing to make them three tons heavier.
The Wrestler really wouldn't have worked as well if we didn't have the white-trash fairy tale of The Wrestler and The Stripper. What should have been a class in Hollywood Film Cliche' 101, actually works much better than it has any reason to. Both Rourke and Tomei's character's are aging performers. Things don't shine as brightly as they used to. It's much harder to get out of bed and shave your armpits for the paying customers then it once was. And they sort of find a partner in antiquity within each other.
Tomei's one of the few aging actress's left in SAG, (probably shouldn't use that acronym with this statement) completely unafraid to take her clothes off and act past her t*ts. She's got that rare gift in a Hollywood starlet - nudity and aptitude are strange bedfellows in Tinseltown. Tomei wields both deftly.
There are scenes in The Wrestler that will grab almost anyone privy enough to see it. My favorite involved an 8-Bit Nintendo Entertainment System, and Randy playing an old NES wrestling cartridge with a neighborhood kid.
This is a film with more heart and soul then the soulless recesses of the multiplex can usually dole out this time of year . It's easy to see why a guy like Bruce Springsteen would lend his voice to the closing credits of the film. When The Wrestler finally does conclude it will hit you, whether that's with a signature Ram elbow drop, or an open handed slap to the mug, The Wrestler will hit you. I promise.
The Bad- The bad is that I've always tried to maintain a comfortable truce with my personal history. Live in the now - not so much in the past. But I was amazed at how much my current personal car Ipod soundtrack is exactly the same as Randy The Ram Robinson's. Quiet Riot. Ratt. Cinderella. Guns N' Roses. (best use of the song Sweet Child O' Mine ever) I need to move on dude...
The Ugly- Nada. Doesn't exist in this feature.
The Verdict- This film and this actor will move you. I have no doubt in my mind that I saw the 81st Academy Awards Best Actor recipient on the big-screen last night. (as it turned out I didn't....) This movie kicks ass.
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
