The Wrestler
2008
If Mickey Rourke started his career comeback in 2005's Sin City as most
people believe, he solidified it with The Wrestler, probably some of the
best work I've ever seen him do. Marisa Tomei's great performance as
Cassidy the stripper only made things better.
Randy "The Ram" Robinson (Mickey Rourke) is an aging professional
wrestler who a decade ago was at the top, but now barely gets by working
small matches at local VFW halls and working part-time in a grocery store.
Randy's life consists of struggling to pay his rent, trying to reconcile
with the daughter he had abandoned years ago, and trying to form a closer
relationship with a stripper (Marisa Tomei) for whom he feels an
attraction. His struggles may lead to something better when he is offered
a big-time high-profile rematch against The Ayatollah, with whom he
battled 20 years ago. This may be his ticket back to fame and fortune,
but...
This was a fantastic film, with a realistic look at the world of
professional wrestling, and I wish I could say it was without
disappointment, but in fact, I was very disappointed in a couple aspects.
The first is already obvious if you consider that the caps are from the
Blu-ray version: someone made the decision to make this film appear as if
it had been shot on 16 mm. It is extremely grainy, and many of the shots
are soft or flat out of focus. I suppose the idea was to give it almost a
"documentary" feel. I wish they hadn't. People spending almost double for
the Blu-ray version are going to wonder why they bothered. My second and
major disappointment was with the ending, but I'll say no more than that
because I don't want to spoil it for viewers. So, this movie was not
perfect, but it definitely was worth watching.
 |
 |
| Andrea Langi |
Marisa Tomei |
|
