filmandcinemapuritans

THE WRESTLER 

I actually saw a good movie. This is a not so bad movie for 2009(actually it was released in 2008), the most likely “Oscar” contender; THE WRESTLER. This film was directed by the super cool director Darren Aronofasky(PI, REQUIEM FOR A DREAM) and stars in his best performance to date Mickey Rourke. Rourke plays “Randy The Ram Robinson” a washed up professional wrestler was once top of his game back in the 1980’s. This film explores the realities of what happens when a wrestler gets too old to wrestles as all wrestlers in real life don’t gather the success as such superstars(WWE) and are forced to wrestle in smaller and unorthodox venues. Regardless if you are a fan of professional wrestling or not, you can appreciate this film and Rourke’s incredible performance. Supported by a very naked Marisa Tomei(she plays a stripper), this film is definitely going to be memorable and I will really be surprised if Rourke IS NOT nominated for any prizes. I mean he plays this fictional character but on some level its almost autobiographical, Rourke was big in the eighties and took a major fall. It makes this film also frustrating because you can see that Rourke has always been a terrific actor. On a related note  I do feel this film might have been partially about the wrestler Jake “The Snake” Roberts, because some of the incidents kind of played out the same. To find out more about Jake “The Snake” Roberts there is actually another wrestling film that goes into greater detail: BEYOND THE MAT. Excellent documentary.