The Wrestler on DVD with Mickey Rourke
Daniel Aronofsky Directs Raw Wrestling Flick
The Wrestler is a classic underdog story revolving around the fictional, over-the-hill wrestling legend Randy “The Ram” Robinson. It’s a dramatically poignant yet graphically brutal film about the comeback of a defeated soul.
Mickey Rourke stars as “The Ram,” a legend of the ring in the 1980’s, who learns that legends fade fast and classic stars are typically pushed aside for the young and fresh. The film opens twenty years after his heyday with Randy living in a trailer park, working to haul boxes in a grocery store and continuing to push his body to its physical limits during weekend wrestling matches.
“The Ram” is half-Rocky Balboa and half-Jake The Snake whose body is in utter shambles but who accepts matches not only for his financial livelihood, but a love of the sport.
Rourke, nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of “The Ram,” delivers a profoundly real character, charismatic and with good intentions, but who can’t seem to get his life back on track. The Wrestler, directed by Daniel Aronofsky, the experimental mind behind Requiem for a Dream and The Fountain, also stars Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood.
The Wrestler is also considered the comeback of Mickey Rourke who witnessed his career fizzle in the 1990s and lived through a horrendous plastic surgery mistake leaving him unrecognizable to many fans.
The Match To End All Matches
Randy is past his prime but still wrestles in the independent circuit in small concert halls and auditoriums. His body, worn out and saturated with various cocktails of pain-killers, relies on steroids and “heart” to finish each match. In one scene Randy even describes himself as a “an old, broken down piece of meat.”
One weekend he accepts a hardcore match against a sadistic wrestler named Necro Butcher (Dylan Summers). The two hit each other with poles, shoot each other with a staple gun and throw each other through glass panes, but at the end of the match Randy has a massive heart attack in the dressing room and his doctor tells him he will never be able to wrestle again.
On the other hand, before his heart problems his promoter had already set up a rematch between Randy and his archenemy “The Ayatollah,” played by Ernest Miller.
Rourke trained with professional wrestlers for the film and actually entered the ring for his character’s matches which look as real as any WWE face-off. These performances weren’t too far off for Rourke who spent much of his youth in an amateur boxing ring and who competed as a professional in the 1990s.
Randy “The Ram” attempts to retire and follow the straight-and-narrow after his heart attack, but weeks of working full-time in a deli prove to be too much for him to handle. Wrestling is such a prodigious part of his life that he can’t stand to be away.
The Women In Randy’s Life
Besides examining the career of an aging professional athlete, The Wrestler also follows Randy as he tries to initiate a romantic relationship with stripper and homemaker Cassidy (Tomei) and his estranged daughter Stephanie (Wood).
Cassidy mirrors Randy “The Ram” more than she realizes. Both characters are performers and both have no alternative but to continue their lifestyles. Over the years Tomei has been a versatile actress and cleverly synthesizes an extroverted stripper and a shy mother into the character of Cassidy.
Randy’s daughter Stephanie is angry at her father for never being around when she was young, but his near fatal heart attack prompts him to seek her out and reconnect so he doesn't die alone. Wood is the talented actress from Across the Universe and Running With Scissors. Her angry, and in some ways immature character, refuses to mend the troubled relationship with her father.
Bruce Springsteen headlines the soundtrack of the film, like so many before it, shows a character accepting themselves for what they are and what they contribute to the world.
Enjoyable Rating: 8 out of 10 for a gritty pro-wrestling drama.
MPAA Rating: Rated R for violence, sexuality/nudity, language and some drug use.
Minutes: 111 minutes
Cast:
Mickey Rourke as Randy “The Ram”
Marisa Tomei as Cassidy
Evan Rachel Wood as Stephanie
Mark Margolis as Lenny
Toddy Barry as Wayne
Ernest Miller as “The Ayatollah”
If You Like “The Wrestler” You’ll Also Like: Rocky
The Wrestler On DVD
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