Movie Review - The Wrestler

My love towards pro-wrestling has already been established through one of my previous posts, so I will not bother with explaining it again. I heard this movie was good so I checked it out and to be honest, this movie is DAMN good. So good that I watched it thrice already and never got bored of it.

Firstly, Mickey Rourke as Randy 'The Ram' Ramzinski - a wrestler who had his time in the ring and is now slowly fading away. Rourke plays the part EXTREMELY well. I heard he was formerly a boxer but bah Gawwd!(geddit?) this man felt like a real professional Wrestler. I mean, the charisma, the in-ring action and even some of the moves he performs - Aronofsky chose the right person to play the part. You feel sorry for Randy and you really want to help him. You can feel the internal struggle going on inside the protagionist's mind and, not to mention, his body and that, in my book, is an acting job well done.

There is one scene where actually nothing happens but It was very sad to watch. All the retired wrestlers are sitting together for an autograph session bored out of their skulls with little to no fans approaching them. It is like they don't care what life throws at them anymore and they just exist since their time is over. That's the thing; the wrestler's lives are portrayed very well in this movie. These wrestlers go through so much but don't get the required recognition once their time is over. Another scene I iked was where Randy calls one of the local kids to play "some Nintendo" and as they are playing, they are discussing about this new game called "Call of Duty". The kid leaves after and you can tell Randy needs him/someone by his side. He clearly feels lonely and come to think of it, loneliness is genuinely scary.

Pam is a another character in the story who works at a nightclub as you-know-who, who initially views Randy as a customer but then a sort of connection starts brewing between the two because of how similar their lives are. Both are struggling to live in the world, doing whatever it takes to earn a few bucks. Randy doesn't want to wrestle but he cannot live without it much like how Rambo cannot live without War. Similar is the case with Pam who is kinda ashamed of her profession but she has to go through it and has no other choice. I am tellin' ya, this is one depressing movie.

I've seen many say that this movie is a basically a Rocky clone except with wrestling. I beg to differ. Rocky is the story of an underdog. But this one is more like a journey towards redemption that also happens to delve into the lives of pro-wrestlers. In fact, you get to see only two short matches in the movie. It is more about the life of a wrestler than his profession.

A thin line separates this flick from being a movie/a documentary. However, the movie is the right length at about 1 hour 40. That being said, it is definitely worth watching atleast once. I would recommend this movie even to those who don't watch wrestling.

Score - 8.5/10

P.S. That ending...man-tears.