Art imitates life in The Wrestler

Rating: 8/10 (30 March 2009)

The Wrestler is a scrappy independent with a well worn look about it that features a towering performance by the worse for wear Mickey Rourke as an over the hill grappler long past his prime. Rourke an 80's sex symbol (9 1/2 Weeks)made a career change to professional boxing in the 90s and has been considered washed up for some time until now. Gone are the movie star looks and brimming self confidence replaced now with a weathered and battered (the creation of good punches and bad plastic surgery)face that ideally fits the character of Randy "The Ram" Robinson, has been wrestler.
The Ram who used to pack arenas is now in the twilight of his career picking up matches when he can for lighter payoffs that allow him to catch up on his rent at the trailer park. When he suffers a near fatal heart attack after a graphically bloody fight that includes staple guns he is left with few options. He attempts to readjust by getting a job at a supermarket deli, reconnecting with his daughter and making a go of it with a stripper(Marisa Tomei)but the promise of all are dashed by Randy's inability to adjust normally outside the ring. So it's back to the canvas one more time for a highly publicized good payday match.
Rourke has at least a half dozen powerful scenes that are truly moving. Realizing he's been a screw up in everything but wrestling he clumsily tries to make a go of it with a daughter that's bitter but willing to give him one more chance and the aging dancer who is faced with a similar situation. Tomei as Cassidy and Evan Rachel Wood as his daughter chip in with fine emotionally real performances that don't hesitate to call Randy out on past and present transgressions.
Director Aron Aronofsky establishes "The Ram's" bleak situation early but balances the story throughout by injecting a good deal of dark humor into situations. It doesn't move as maniacally as his Requiem for a Dream but there is some fine use of hand held camera-work and some striking compositions such as when he is retrieving his van after being released from the hospital that serve as perfect metaphor. Like Requiem he refuses the easy way out with his story
Since it's a well traveled theme there's a little cliché and a lot of gratuitous violence in the Wrestler but Rourke along with able assists from Tomei and Wood convincingly convey the daunting melancholia of being worn down by life.