Gritty, Real, tale of aging

Rating: 7/10 (17 May 2009)

A solid movie, "The Wrestler" has a sort of docudrama feel with the hand-held type camera work and the situations and settings. Mickey Rourke as Randy the Ram lives a truly pathetic life as a washed up wrestler. He feels alone and has almost no family. I enjoyed his romance with Pam (Marisa Tomei) the table-dancer. Both seem to want a little more normalcy out of life, but it's hard to break through stereotypes and expectations. One of the better scenes in the movie featured them at a bar reminiscing. The movie exemplifies the staleness and obsolescence relating to age and aging. The feeling and despair when youth passes us by - when you're better days were in the past. Although the father/daughter relationship feels too glossed over, the movie works well. I didn't particularly like the sporadic jerky camera movement, but it's a minor issue. Worth a watch.