A wrestler all the way

Rating: 6/10 (13 October 2011)

This is a story of an old timer professional wrestler, once globally known and respected, whose prime time has passed and now makes a living by performing in local matches and working at a supermarket. After one of his matches he fells unconscious due to a heart attack and after being treated at a hospital, he is told that he can no longer wrestle because his heart can fail again and he may not survive this time. He decides to set wrestling aside as prescribed. This is very tough for him both emotionally and economically as this has been his life long passion. So, he tries to make up for it by finding love in family and human affection. There are two people in his life who he feels passionate toward. Firstly, it is his daughter, Stephanie, whom he left when she was very young and she sort of hates his father. Second, there is this stripper, pam, who has Ram as a regular customer and Ram has grown some affection for her beyond the sex dances she gives him at the joint. Unfortunately for Ram, neither of these two reciprocate the passion he feels. His daughter, while mad at him at first for neglecting him all this time, warms up to him due to his persistent and humorous personality. However, Ram misses an important dinner with her which makes her end their relationship for good. Pam, on the other hand, is hesitant about Ram as her love goes mostly to her nine year old son whom she is devoted to. While it is clear that Pam sees Ram as more than a mere customer she is hesitant to start an affair and thus ignores Rams efforts to establish one. This culminates in a fight in the strip club which convinces Ram not to pursue her anymore. Now, Ram is at the end of the line. He has lost his lifetime joy. His daughter which is his only family hates him. The only woman in his life has turned him down and the one time glamorous wrestler have to sell dellys at a local supermarket to makes end meet. This is the final moment for him and he decides to die a glorious death, pursuing what he loved most in life, the wrestling. So he decides to wrestle one more time knowing that this would be his last. The end of the movie is open to debate. It does not show him die. So, he might survive this fight. Even though I believe his leap at the end is the leap to his death and he indeed dies. But, what else can be implicated is that he decides to wrestle at the cost of his life and he will definitely die sooner or later in one of the matches.
Compared to the other Arnofsky's movie, the black swan, I did not like this movie that much. First of all, I could not feel the passion that the director intended me to towards Ram. I did not feel sorry for him when his daughter left him. In fact, I think he deserved it. When her daughter was awaiting him in the restaurant, he was drinking bear, smoking drugs, and banging a chick at a bar! Apparently, he is a careless person and he does not love his daughter that much. On the other hand, I can not understand why Pam refused him so persistently. Pam is a stripper at the end of her career and a supportive husband and father for her kid will be desirable for her as she plans to start a new life somewhere else. If she would have doubted faithfulness and trustworthiness of Ram that would have made sense. But she keeps telling him that he is a customer and she could not have relationships with customers. Why she cares so much about that when she is going to leave the joint soon anyways? It seems that Pam also feels for Ram somehow but she is doubtful of it (for the reasons that are missing!). This specially shows near the end when she leaves the club to go to and change Rams mind for the wrestle/suicide. However, it is not clear to me if she does this on a humanitarian basis or she has some feelings for Ram. When she catches Ram before his match, she mentions that she is gonna be there so this means sort of like a positive answer to Rams love. However, it is too late and Ram has decided his fate. Knowing what is going to happen, Pam can not watch the match and leaves. The scene that Ram rejects Pams offer to stay together also does not make sense. Ram could have called off the match (at the cost of angering the organizers) and left with Pam. This was what he was looking for after all. Before his final leap of death, Rams looks again at the place were Pam used to stand for a final goodbye and gets disappointed when he couldn't find her. I just can not understand why he refused Pam before the match. The only reason I can think of is that he felt her reaction was out of feeling sorry for him and not a true love. For these reasons and gaps, I didn't like the movie that much. Also, I didn't feel Mickey Rourke deserved an Oscar. He wasn't that impressive to me. In addition, there are not many memorable events in the movie.
At last, I should say that all the fuss that Iranian media made out of the movie did not make sense. I am an Iranian and I did not feel even a bit offended by the wrestler called ayatollah. Sometimes, Iranian media just become over-fussy over unimportant stuff. This is one of these cases.