The Wrestler is the story of Randy ‘The Ram’ Robinson (Mickey Rourke), a has-been wrestler who cannot resist the lure of the ring. Randy works part time in a grocery store and wrestles on the independent circuit, but is desperate to return to face his rival for one last fight and his last chance at stardom.
Randy ‘The Ram’ must be the part that Mickey Rourke was born to play. Rourke was an amateur boxer in his teens, but temporarily retired from the ring after he suffered several concussions. Rourke returned to the ring in 1991 but retired again in 1995 to return to acting. Perhaps it was this experience with the highs and lows of professional sport that allowed Rourke to bring such reality to the character of Randy ‘The Ram’. “Like a Pro Wrestler who shows off his scars to prove his sport isn’t fake, Rourke brings his bruises to the surface for a raw performance that blurs the line between fiction and documentary with brutal ease” writes Sam Ashurst in Total Film magazine.
Dan Jolin, of Empire Magazine describes The Wrester as “a vastly improved version of the last Rocky movie in its portrayal of a likable schmo who’s both a flawed father and former champ, still trying to go the distance even though a very different kind of end is in sight”. Throughout the movie, Randy attempts to forge relationships, most notably with Stephanie (Evan Rachel Wood), the daughter that he abandoned when she was a child and Cassidy (Marisa Tomei), a stripper who he has romantic feelings for.
The nature of the relationship between Randy and Cassidy is noted by James Rocchi in his review of the film for the Toronto Film Festival; “Randy has his scars; Cassidy, her tattoos, each of them carrying mistakes and memories in their very flesh. They’re both living in the past, and the passage of time is sure to leave them homeless and hurt”.
Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei have both been praised and Oscar nominated for their performances in this film, but it is Rourke that is the film’s leading light. “Rourke creates a galvanizing, humorous, deeply moving portrait that instantly takes its place among the great, iconic screen performances” writes Todd McCarthy of Variety.
Director Darren Aronofsky, best known for the visually chaotic and intense film Requiem for a Dream, has also been commended for his direction of The Wrestler. Sukhdev Sandhu of The Telegraph says “The Wrestler is less hyperactive than Aronofsky’s earlier films. It’s designed to resemble a documentary and achieves its goal of looking crummy so successfully that viewers may feel they’re taking a holiday in a dirty refrigerator. The pervasive, wheezy grottiness highlights the Ram’s fall from his former glories, and also captures the daily reality of most wrestlers’ lives”.
Overall, The Wrestler taps a vein of emotion without ever crossing the line into sentimentality, and could well be the comeback that Mickey Rourke needs.
