A Review Of The Popular Movie The Wrestler

by Guest Author

What do you mean you haven't seen The Wrestler yet? It may well be one of the top ten movie downloads of the last decade! Everything you've head about this movie is true. Mickey Rourke gives the performance of a lifetime, making a strong comeback, and the film itself may well be director Darren Aronofsky's masterpiece.

The heart, soul and body of the movie is Mickey Rourke's performance as Randy The Ram Robinson. Well, his real name is Robin Ramzinski. He was a huge star in the hair metal eighties days of wrestling, but has since faded into obscurity. Now he wrestles on the weekends, but it doesn't quite pay the bills, and he has to supplement that by putting in hours at the local grocery store.

Randy's lifestyle has alienated everyone he's ever loved and seriously done a number on his body. He has to see if he can make a comeback, both in the ring, where he's washed up, and in his personal life, where he doesn't even have a loyal fanbase to keep him going.

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.

Again, it's all about Mickey Rourke here. The story of the Wrestler is as much his as it is Randy's. Rourke himself has made a few mistakes, and just like Randy, was on the comeback trail. So the result is that he doesn't just play this role, he lived it. Interestingly, the role was going to go to Nicholas Cage, but Cage dropped out so that Rourke could take it.

Without Cage, they had to settle on a smaller budget, but the end result is a much smaller, more intimate film. Rourke wrestles for crowds of maybe a hundred people at a time, giving his all to each and every performance and bleeding it out for the fans.

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.

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.

Unless you have an exceptional singing voice, sing an up-tempo number. Movie Site Its a little bit of a stretch, the way it all fits together at the end, but the ending is still satisfying and insightful. The cricket enthusiasts can download the podcasts and enjoy the moments of a cricket tournament.

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