| Overall Grade: |
A |
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| Story: |
A- |
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| Acting: |
A |
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| Direction: |
B+ |
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|
| Visuals: |
A |
|
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Wrastlin with middle age
by Jim B (movies profile)
Dec 26, 2008
12
of
18 people found this review helpful
Randy "The Ram" Robinson, wrestler, and Pam “the Cassidy” Lap Dancer stripper cross paths in their dead end lives where their eternal grip on youth has taken them down the short road to nowhere. An aromatic onion in this salad of tears and regret.
Mickey Rourke’s hypnotic raw performance rings true from rope bounce to rope bounce. We feel every matt burn, staple-gun stapled in his flesh, and heart pain his body endures and we feel lousy for him. Darren Aronofsky films this in a shaky cam way giving the film more depth however it gets bothersome at points. The fake sport of Professional Wrestling and the false illusions of friendly naked girls in a stripper bar are the fantasy backdrop to the tired and ruined street scenes of real life. There is an appearance of crassness to this story which has embraced the lovable characters of Pam and Randy.
Early in the “Wrestler” Randy is locked out of his trailer by the trailer camp manager for lack of payment, so he must resort to sleeping in his van in the parking lot. Neighborhood youths wake him in mid morning jumping on his van. Randy dresses, jumps out the back and wrastles with the group as though he were in that early impressionable age where boys act on everything. Later in the film he has one of the boys over to his trailer for yesteryear video games when the kid has enough he leaves Randy to play games by himself for the kid has tired of the old toys and is in search for new. The film ends with Randy making a move in the ring where Aronofsky has choreographed the two aged wrestlers still playing the game to a smallish audience and loving it. It is there lives and they love it to the death. |
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