One need only look at his first three films 'Pi', 'Requiem For a Dream', and 'The Fountain'; to realize that Darren Aronofsky has never been the type of film maker to enter a project with box office seats in mind. 'The Wrestler', his latest transcendent creation is likely to receive much of the same initial criticism for walking off the beaten path of entertaining Hollywood Fare. Its 16mm pseudo-documentary style will feel like an overly used gimick of budgetary limitations to the critics bent on blindly following their so-named job descriptions. It is an indie, arthouse, film festival kind of film that is slowly paced, deeply saddening, and at times uncomfortable. In spite of which I will dare to say that not one gritty frame is wasted in this master work that tells the poignant story of a professional wrestler, wrestling with his personal life in the back nine holes of a career long past its prime.
Although it may seem obvious in hind sight, Aronofsky cast Mickey Rourke as the protagonist, Randy 'The Ram' a professional wrestler with an actual and metaphorical failing heart. Aronofsky cinematically places us so deep in his shoes, that we can smell the sweat and feel the aching warn out body parts. We spend half of the movie in a hand-held documentary-esce follow technique that literally follows Randy 'The Ram' through every crumbling part of his athletically taped togethered once glamorous life. Like the film's impactful hour and 45 minute run-time, Rourke is lean and muscular having gained 35 pounds for the role. The parallels between Rourke's career and Randy's bring a truth, and for audience members familiar with Rourke's career, an a priori truth. Not since 'Rumble Fish' have I felt Rourke so close to home as a character admired from a distance yet deeply troubled and self-conciously self-loathing in close quarters. He is at his best here, multi-faceted and affecting from his humorous charm entertaining customers from behind a deli counter to tangible moments of of deep regret. He fills the frame for 95% of the film to our benefit as he goes after the part with the kind of gusto that endures self-mutilation, digs deep into the depths of emotional truth, and carries the audience with the charisma to leave us emotionally bouyant enough to empathize with his flawed persona.
Rourke is well supported; Marisa Tomei equally goes for broke stripping away her Hollywood image and her clothes to play a stripper named Cassidy. She bests predecessors like Elizabeth Berkley, Demi Moore, and Darryl Hannah in humanizing the pole dancing struggle. Her struggle isn't in shedding her clothes or making ends meat. It is in maintaining her professionalism; keeping a distance while providing fantasy as a service. Evan Rachel Wood is great as Randy's neglected daughter. She brings the right amount of reluctance behind the defense mechanisms to show us how much she wants a relationship with her father but justifiably distrusts.
The film is great! It's definitely academy award potential great, not that it begs for that kind of validation. I'm not sure if it's film school curriculum great, but its merits definitely hold lessons for film makers and actors everywhere. He has transported us into the hallway tunnel of an underground wrestling match about to begin. Although staged, the performance is a labor of love for its gladiators. Like one of these wrestling matches, the brutality of his film is real and a thrill. Sadism becomes masochism with the presence of empathy. I would not recommend this film unless you are prepared to wrestle with your emotional attachment to Rourke's transformation into Randy 'The Ram'.
ding ding
-MM
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