The Wrestler

A remarkable film which follows a fictional has-been wrestler in a terribly real world, Mickey Rourke acts his ass off in The Wrestler, moving and sounding like a man who’s spent his greater days fighting and putting on the greatest show on Earth, and a man who’s as changed over the years as the time around him changes, a performance that is fully realized by a complete set of fully realized characters and the presentation of a candid documentary. With shaky-cam moments and rough cuts, the camera men may be assumed to be intruding on the reality of The Ram’s world, but they actually melt away into the dusty surface of the rest of the film, and makes us feel like a personal pal following these characters as we would if we knew them in real life.
The movie is not afraid to tell us the greater differences from today and the prior twenty years which are summed up by a bulletin of posters and clippings, by showing us the advances in technology and culture that Randy the Ram refuses to make. Rourke’s character is lovable and endearing, despite the mistakes he makes, and even though we see that there are two sides to every story, I find myself favoring Randy’s perspective, no matter how flawed and naive it seems. I love the guy.
Music placement is natural for the setting, and cleverly synchronized to the action, and there’s no lack for believable atmosphere. I am nearly convinced that I am watching a real man’s struggle in a cruddy fuckin’ world, in a crumby little place just like every other little-America in every state, which combined with rough cuts and cheap audio, confine the character, and make him seem as constricted as he feels, while he’s hated by the women he loves and his only escape from life is the sport that can kill him at any moment.
I feel a bit of delight to see him using that outdated hearing aid.
I don’t care how old they make Marisa Tomei look, she’ll always be fucking gorgeous.
Ayatola’s gotta be the goofiest politically incorrect character I’ve seen so far.
Riveting ending.

SCRIPT: respectable
ACTION: amazing
DIRECTION: amazing
CONTENT: respectable

It seems that I’ve taken on a series of excellent movies, and my ratings are repeating… perhaps I should work on that new system I was contemplating.