Breaking bones with sticks-and-stones, and hearts

Rating: 8/10 (22 January 2009)

Filmed in glorious 16mm, the wonderful format of the "amateur", the maverick, the Independent moviemaker, and casting a symbolic texture of street-level realism. Here, we see Darren Aronofsky, along with the likes of Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and the work by Shane Meadows, such as Dead Man's Shoes (2004) and This Is England (2006) for example, bringing the Independent feel to the Big Screen once more with The Wrestler. While in good company, The Wrestler alongside Herz's and Kaufman's The Toxic Avenger (1984), Hallström's and Hedges's What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), Andrea Arnold's beautiful and touching Red Road (2006) and Noel Clarkes' work, for example, all have that Independent vibe about them. This is what separates them from the norm, the need to express their thoughts onto film without the constraints of mediocrity. All highly imaginative, unique, fresh and individual pieces of work that are testament to the skill of all those involved by venturing further a field with daring and courage. The Wrestler is certainly no exception.
While a title in the sense of a singular, perspective we can very quickly gather that there is a much wider and broader feel to the content. This, The Wrestler, is not so much about a single entity but a whole way of life, a sub-culture, who through immense pride and camaraderie, find that life on the right side of the ropes can become exciting and justly rewarding. Darren Aronofsky and writer Robert D. Siegel, on the other hand, have produced a film of immense sorrow and suffering seen via a victim of the times and literally time itself. Mickey Rourke's Randy "The Ram" Robinson could very well have been anyone, in fact, he is "everyone", he has become symbolic of these past, present and future aging, bruised and battered men, crippled and broken spiritually, physically and emotionally by constant years of hard, torturous abuse for the sport they love and that has loved them in return and which now rejects them. One has only to see the scene of realisation and hard reality check while The Ram has set his table of old videos and posters ready for autographing, sits along fellow comrades too far gone and broken, it finally sinks in that he too has now joined the destitute and lost. Beautiful.
Seen here is the life of the hardships of those who were born just too late. Too late for everlasting fame. Too late for that all-important Cable T.V. deal. Too late for the Video-game merchandise rights and too late for lady-luck to grace her way to better times ahead before the fading light of fame has flickered and died and past the point of no return. This is a very simple tale with honest hard-working characters who are striving to earn a buck to pay the rent, to feed their kids, making ends meet to justify the end. The mighty may have fallen but they have not given up, maybe through a need of necessity rather than love of their profession, they carry on. These are not stupid people, criminals they are not and living in poverty, bedding down in trailers or if that also includes working nights pole-dancing, such as Marisa Tomei's "Cassidy", makes them just as worthy of praise if they are willing to simply try.
It is in this life that both writer and director have projected a loving narrative of loneliness. With The Rams back-room bonding and mutual respect of his co-wrestlers' that is very much replicated, it is here that the life of this tired old man finds the necessary tools to fill the void. Often touching and more than often painful to bear witness that his life is completely empty albeit the roar of the crowed, their adulation and what little pennies it earns. It is with great praise, also, that Mickey Rourke has held the spirit of this sub-culture high with grace and virtue, a stupendous performance that shines throughout to transcend the pathos of his lonely existence, on the wrong side of the ropes. An exceedingly moving film, beautifully exposing the harsh realities of a life, a way-of-life, of a broken man and his courage to see his faults and his determination to pull himself up and away from the slings-and-arrows that are thrown toward him. The Wrestler wins this bout.