Lyzsi SinclairThe Wrestler
The Wrestler (2008)
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Starring: Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei
Randy ‘The Ram’ Robinson (Mickey Rourke) is a wrestler twenty years past his prime. Randy’s face is a legacy to his years in pro wrestling, his body is too old and punished to take the steroids he injects, he wears a hearing aid, and he finds it hard to pay the rent on his trailer with his shelf-packing day job. This could have been the story of a man defeated by age and the fading of success, but The Wrestler goes much further than that.
Randy might no longer have the big crowds, big money, and the trappings that go hand-in-hand with fame, yet he is adored by the neighborhood kids and still a hero to both the old guard and up-and-coming wrestlers. He still cuts an intimidating figure in the ring, and still retains the right to overcome his opponents with the prearranged ‘Ram Jam’ move for which he became famous.
The Wrestler has a more mainstream feel to it that some of director Darren Aronofsky’s previous films (Pi, Requiem for a Dream), yet still has a whiff of arthouse – whatever the term means these days. The storyline is not complex, but morality is not handed to the audience on a platter, predigested. The script is for the most part honest and believable, in turns humorous and mildly depressing, but the real accomplishment in The Wrestler is the casting.
Mickey Rourke does not play Randy Robinson. Mickey Rourke is Randy Robinson. He slips into this character like a pair of old jeans, and it could be postulated that Rourke has a raft of personal experience to draw on for a character such as The Ram. Marisa Tomei is equally perfect playing stripper Cassidy, to whom Randy feels a connection – despite her best interests to distance herself from customers. While near perfect, one weak link does exist in the film: Randy’s estranged daughter Stephanie (Evan Rachel Wood) is not a well-developed character, and her scenes therefore come off as slightly contrived and unnecessary. There is an infrequent but disconcerting slide towards the saccharine in The Wrestler, but this does not harm the overall success of the film.
The Wrestler is a film about all that is real, and all that is fake. Randy Robinson – whose real name, Robin Ramzinski, he can’t bear to hear – is a work of art in fakery. His hair is bleached, his tan is fake, and his wrestling matches are – of course – prearranged and melodramatic. Likewise, Cassidy has created a fake image of herself, worn to protect the stripper from the unsettling divide between her life as a suburban mom and her unclothed stage persona. But while appearances may indicate fakery, the characters and the ups and downs of their lives are very real. Even the blood that flows down Randy’s face when he fakes an injury is his blood; a real injury from a fake cause.
Despite its well-delivered occasional humour, The Wrestler is not a movie that will leave you feeling jovial. But I guarantee it will make you think a little bit about the choices we make, the connections we have with others, and the merit of following our dreams at the expense of excluding everything else.
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Starring: Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei
Photo courtesy of Google. Image may be copyrighted.
Randy ‘The Ram’ Robinson (Mickey Rourke) is a wrestler twenty years past his prime. Randy’s face is a legacy to his years in pro wrestling, his body is too old and punished to take the steroids he injects, he wears a hearing aid, and he finds it hard to pay the rent on his trailer with his shelf-packing day job. This could have been the story of a man defeated by age and the fading of success, but The Wrestler goes much further than that.
Randy might no longer have the big crowds, big money, and the trappings that go hand-in-hand with fame, yet he is adored by the neighborhood kids and still a hero to both the old guard and up-and-coming wrestlers. He still cuts an intimidating figure in the ring, and still retains the right to overcome his opponents with the prearranged ‘Ram Jam’ move for which he became famous.
The Wrestler has a more mainstream feel to it that some of director Darren Aronofsky’s previous films (Pi, Requiem for a Dream), yet still has a whiff of arthouse – whatever the term means these days. The storyline is not complex, but morality is not handed to the audience on a platter, predigested. The script is for the most part honest and believable, in turns humorous and mildly depressing, but the real accomplishment in The Wrestler is the casting.
Mickey Rourke does not play Randy Robinson. Mickey Rourke is Randy Robinson. He slips into this character like a pair of old jeans, and it could be postulated that Rourke has a raft of personal experience to draw on for a character such as The Ram. Marisa Tomei is equally perfect playing stripper Cassidy, to whom Randy feels a connection – despite her best interests to distance herself from customers. While near perfect, one weak link does exist in the film: Randy’s estranged daughter Stephanie (Evan Rachel Wood) is not a well-developed character, and her scenes therefore come off as slightly contrived and unnecessary. There is an infrequent but disconcerting slide towards the saccharine in The Wrestler, but this does not harm the overall success of the film.
The Wrestler is a film about all that is real, and all that is fake. Randy Robinson – whose real name, Robin Ramzinski, he can’t bear to hear – is a work of art in fakery. His hair is bleached, his tan is fake, and his wrestling matches are – of course – prearranged and melodramatic. Likewise, Cassidy has created a fake image of herself, worn to protect the stripper from the unsettling divide between her life as a suburban mom and her unclothed stage persona. But while appearances may indicate fakery, the characters and the ups and downs of their lives are very real. Even the blood that flows down Randy’s face when he fakes an injury is his blood; a real injury from a fake cause.
Despite its well-delivered occasional humour, The Wrestler is not a movie that will leave you feeling jovial. But I guarantee it will make you think a little bit about the choices we make, the connections we have with others, and the merit of following our dreams at the expense of excluding everything else.
