The Wrestler
January 15th 2009 06:01
In two words, absolutely beautiful. The Wrestler has arrived in Australia after it’s hot off the press rumours of Mickey Rourke giving a performance of towering proportion. It appears these rumours were not wrong.
Darren Aronofsky, the fertile creator of PI and Requiem For A Dream steps back on this one and lets perhaps one of the truly authentic remaining Method actors run free. The brief outline of this film involves an over the hill professional wrestler burning the candle at both ends who lands up having to make the ultimate sacrifice. I for one am absolutely floored that this material, which in concept sounds revolting, landed up being so moving.
I know that I generally only give good reviews to films I write about (as I only write about films I actually liked), but during the first ten minutes of The Wrestler, I wondered if I had not set my self up for disappointment. I am happy to say I didn’t although the first few scenes involve setting up the daily routine of ‘Randy the Ram Robinson’ (Mickey Rourke), hardly felt like the film was heading anywhere special. The film first establishes a few facts about the way this man lives his life, but when he is told by a doctor that wrestling is out of the question, The Ram has to figure out what is important to him and what his life is worth living for. Marisa Tomei, give really good support in this film as an aging stripper who The Ram confides in, these two characters are brought together through both being performers in the most extreme sense, who are seen as two people who are too old for what they do, which for the same token makes for very rocky ground as far as an emotional connection goes.
The other woman in Randy’s life is his estranged daughter played by Evan Rachel Wood, who is just absolutely devastating in this film, she literally brought me tears every moment she was on screen, creating what I believe to be one of the best female performances I’ve seen in a very long time.
Of course the film belongs ultimately to Mickey Rourke. I felt like I was receiving a spiritual gift as I watched him on screen. As Rourke tries to figure out what is worth living for, he bears his own soul to us, which in turn creates a person who, by the end of this film, you care so deeply about that you might just want to cry when you think about him afterwards.
What makes The Wrestler a great film, is that it takes what seems to be a dull subject, one that is usually laughed about by many people and creates a main character who is so human, one we land up caring so much about, that the film could have really been about anything, all that matters is the one person which occupied this existence in the story. From the first shot of Mickey Rourke on screen we feel like we know him. Aronofsky’s hand held camera trails along behind him constantly as we become more attached to this person. It really does feel like the first great Method performance of this decade.
Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler
Darren Aronofsky, the fertile creator of PI and Requiem For A Dream steps back on this one and lets perhaps one of the truly authentic remaining Method actors run free. The brief outline of this film involves an over the hill professional wrestler burning the candle at both ends who lands up having to make the ultimate sacrifice. I for one am absolutely floored that this material, which in concept sounds revolting, landed up being so moving.
I know that I generally only give good reviews to films I write about (as I only write about films I actually liked), but during the first ten minutes of The Wrestler, I wondered if I had not set my self up for disappointment. I am happy to say I didn’t although the first few scenes involve setting up the daily routine of ‘Randy the Ram Robinson’ (Mickey Rourke), hardly felt like the film was heading anywhere special. The film first establishes a few facts about the way this man lives his life, but when he is told by a doctor that wrestling is out of the question, The Ram has to figure out what is important to him and what his life is worth living for. Marisa Tomei, give really good support in this film as an aging stripper who The Ram confides in, these two characters are brought together through both being performers in the most extreme sense, who are seen as two people who are too old for what they do, which for the same token makes for very rocky ground as far as an emotional connection goes.
The other woman in Randy’s life is his estranged daughter played by Evan Rachel Wood, who is just absolutely devastating in this film, she literally brought me tears every moment she was on screen, creating what I believe to be one of the best female performances I’ve seen in a very long time.
Mickey Rourke bringing it home for the crowd!
Of course the film belongs ultimately to Mickey Rourke. I felt like I was receiving a spiritual gift as I watched him on screen. As Rourke tries to figure out what is worth living for, he bears his own soul to us, which in turn creates a person who, by the end of this film, you care so deeply about that you might just want to cry when you think about him afterwards.
What makes The Wrestler a great film, is that it takes what seems to be a dull subject, one that is usually laughed about by many people and creates a main character who is so human, one we land up caring so much about, that the film could have really been about anything, all that matters is the one person which occupied this existence in the story. From the first shot of Mickey Rourke on screen we feel like we know him. Aronofsky’s hand held camera trails along behind him constantly as we become more attached to this person. It really does feel like the first great Method performance of this decade.
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