The Wrestler

The Wrestler helped me realise wrestling is disgusting and wrestling fans should really find a better hobby. That anything-goes fight made me so uncomfortable, how on earth could anybody ever want to watch or take part in that? Go dance ballet or something, at least when you go crazy doing that, you'll look cool doing so. Other than the grotesque nature of those parts of the movie, the rest of it was actually really good. The story itelf was great and Mickey Rourke was outstanding. If I was a more reasonable person, I might even say it was a great movie because the wrestling parts did exactly what they were supposed to do, but good thing I'm not then because wrestling sucks. "The only place I get hurt is out there." ;_;

Darren Aronofsky's glimpse into the grim reality of retirement in pro wrestling is a tough, fair rumination on a physically unforgiving industry. Not as suicidally dark as Requiem for a Dream, but it doesn't need to be - where Requiem was about a self-destructive quest for the taste of an elusive high, The Wrestler is more interested in the shattered figure trying to cope with the repercussions of that lifestyle. Mickey Rourke nails the role of Randy "The Ram" Robinson, as advertised; the conflicting emotions of hope, guilt, desperation and cheap indulgence that flash across his face speak volumes when the character has very little to say for himself. Marissa Tomei is nicely cast as his counterpart, a stripper running into identical problems; aging in an industry that relies almost exclusively on one's superficial gifts. I didn't care for the ambiguous ending and found the in-ring scenes to be jumpy and weak, but loved the rich characterization, deep respect for the subject and long, unspoken history that precedes the events of the film.