THE WRESTLER

Director:  Darren Aronofsky

Review by Robert Sabetto

THE WRESTLER is a middle weight drama about facing mortality, owning up to a lifetime of fuck-ups, attempting to make amends, and finally saying “screw it.”  That may sound hum-drum, and for the most part, it is.  Mickey Rourke plays Randy “the Ram” Robinson, a has-been celebrity pro wrestler whose heyday was during the 80s (think WWF).  Rourke is a good if not ironic choice for this role: there seem to be more than just a few parallels between him and Randy.  Perhaps unlike Rourke, however, Randy lives in the past.  He keeps his mullet chemical blond and listens to heavy metal, basking in his faded stardom.  Maybe it’s because there’s no glory in working as a grocery store stocker, or no glamour living in a trailer park he can’t afford.  Whatever it is, he hasn’t completely left wrestling: Randy still performs to crowds of about a hundred on the weekends.

The trouble with Randy is…oh, where do I begin?  He’s self-destructive, to say the least.  He’s in his fifties and still parties and does steroids, digs a stripper (Marissa Tomei, whose breasts make a surprising appearance during a pole dance), and has a daughter who hates him (Evan Rachel Wood, who has a few nice screaming scenes).  Just before his comeback match with a rival of over twenty years, Randy has a heart attack.  This forces him to examine his life.  He reaches out and tries to make changes, but ultimately is unable to escape what he is.

THE WRESTLER isn’t bad.  Aronofsky beautifully captures the bleakness of being, well, past one’s prime.  None of us wants to get old, and maybe this is how we’ll carry on, too.  Aronofsky’s choice of equally bleak locations and weather add nicely to the overall grey mood of this film.  The details are amusingly spot on: check out Randy’s fans, the music Randy likes, the wrestling matches.  Heck, there’s even a Randy action figure.  There are a few priceless scenes, like Rourke and Tomei singing along to Ratt's ''Round and Round'' in a bar.  But THE WRESTLER isn’t great, either.  It’s slow at parts, and I found it hard not to view Randy as Rourke himself.  I know, that’s my issue.  Somehow in the end, though, Randy came off as merely a character in a movie, not a real person.  Maybe that’s the point.  It still bugged me.