Motion picture that under it's simple title, hides so many layers of common real life emotions

Rating: 10/10 (2 January 2009)

First of all, let me tell you that those kinds of movies don't happen too often, and when you think about this sort, you know that there's only handful similarly well made productions every decade or so. Like with its straight on title, all the beauty of "The Wrestler" lays in its simplicity. This is the story of one man, Randy "The Ram" Robinson. He is a Wrestler. His heydays are long gone but he still hangs on to this profession(as I think we may call wrestling) that gave him so much over the years, but also through Randy's absolute dedication, made his life outside the ring rather shallow and empty. We see that being the truth, when after one brutal match(which is shown in very violent way) Randy experiences heart attack, and is told to put his wrestling gigs aside.Then he faces many tough encounters with new reality, like confrontation with his estranged daughter(played beautifully by Evan Reachel Wood) with whom Randy would very much like to make the peace but after all lost years it may not be possible, and we see him doing different types of honest hard work, he would take to make a living. Randy's other interest besides wrestling is his relationship with the stripper named Cassidy(another award worthy performance from Marisa Tomei).She is Randy's maybe only soul-mate to whom he can freely talk about anything. She resembles Randy in that she also does use her body as a way to make money, but to both of them there is more then meets the eye. Thanks to film's low budget you can relate to all the events more then usual. Almost whole think was shot with using hand-held cameras, and it gives you the feeling of authenticity, like you were there with Randy. Music composed by Clint Mansell is very subtle, and we have fair share of famous 80's hard-rock songs. All the parallels between Randy's character and Mickey Rourke's real life are very much intended, probably because of that he was able to play this part so well, almost effortless. As for the wrestling matches there are some very impressive stunts there , and allegedly Mickey Rourke did all his moves by himself, for those show scenes separately he deserves some kind of recognition. It's a very raw and honest movie, you feel for all the characters, and how they interact with each other, partially thanks to those very honest performances, and also by beautiful straightforward direction in which Darren Aranofsky shot this film. It is one not to be missed, you may laugh you may cry, and you will know by the end of it, that you were treated with something special.