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(Fortune Cookie, The Fountain, Pi, Protozoa, Requiem for a Dream, Supermarket Sweep, The Wrestler)
Producers:
Darren Aronofsky and Scott Franklin
Screenplay:
Robert D. Siegel
Original Score :
Clint Mansell
Cast :
Randy 'The Ram' Robinson: Mickey Rourke
Cassidy: Marisa Tomei
Stephanie: Evan Rachel Wood
Lenny: Mark Margolis
Wayne: Todd Barry
Nick Volpe: Wass Stevens
Scott Brumberg: Judah Friedlander
The Ayatollah: Ernest Miller
Necro Butcher: Dylan Keith Summers
Tommy Rotten: Tommy Farra
Lex Lethal: Mike Miller
From out of nowhere, Mickey Rourke has made a slow comeback over the last few years, but he's at his best in a long time with The Wrestler.
As we join Randy 'The Ram' Robinson (Rourke), it's 20 years on from his glory days and we see the man, himself,
making a comeback for the fans. He knows his best days are behind him, but he can still bring in the crowds, and that's
all that's important to him. However, his personal life's turned to crap and he's living out of a trailer. All he's got
to look forward to is just thinking about old times and a potential rematch with one of his biggest opponents ever
Inbetween we see him eeking out a meagre living doing basic manual labour, moving boxes about, putting rubbish food into
plastic containers at a deli counter. We also see him getting hooked on prescription medicines that cost a fortune under
the counter, as well as steroids. Vanity insists that he gets his hair bleached and goes on a sunbed. Reality kicks in
when he has to sport a hearing aid.
Thirty mins in, he's covered in blood throughout the course of a fight, and it all looks incredibly
gross! Okay, so I know this film will do things for effect, and that it's showing what goes on at hardcore wrestling
matches, but because there's bits of glass and barbed wire ripping the Ram's flesh apart, it has a fantastic level of
realism. He clearly doesn't feel good about having to put himself through this hell in order to make a buck.
As such, he ends up in hospital to have a heart bypass and is told his heart is not in great shape and if he
continues to wrestle, then it'll kill him. Hence, it's time to reattach family ties with his daughter, Stephanie
(Evan Rachel Wood), which have long-since been broken.
Mickey Rourke is a strange-looking creature these days after butchering his face with plastic surgery, but at least
here it can be used to good effect as a man beaten up by both life and his job. Marisa Tomei, as Randy's friend,
looks fantastic in the buff as she gives lapdances. She 44 and that rhymes with "Phwoar" (bit cheesy, I know but it's
true!). However, her character, Cassidy, is also feeling her age as it's the younger girls who get the most clients
while she's feeling similarly over the hill in a competitive world that thrives on youth. Evan Rachel Wood is also worth
a watch here, but without giving away the plot, she wasn't in it as much as I expected.
All those involved with this film were clearly dedicated as it had a tight shoot of 35 days and a very low budget of
around $5-7m.
As such, Rourke and Bruce Springsteen, who provided the title track for the movie, reportedly worked for free, and W.Axl Rose
also donated the use of Guns N Roses' Sweet Child of Mine for no charge.
Overall, The Wrestler has a great low-key style which does away with incidental music and is all the better
for it as we follow Randy's story. It's also the kind of film that could've been turned into an unnecessary,
self-indulgent 3hr director's cut but Darren Aronofsky has fashioned a great drama that's neatly told within 105
mins before the end credits kick in. That said, I don't think it's a BAFTA-winning performance from Rourke, but then
I think that was just a token gesture for the fact he missed out with
Angel Heart. That said, Rourke certainly turns in a fantastic
performance and there's a moment involving a razor blade which I won't spoil here, but was done for real.
Mostly shot on hand-held camera, that does give a certain feel to the film that works well, but the print doesn't
feel Blu-ray-sharp as a result of both that and the grainy effect applied, although it's still good. The film is
presented in a 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen frame. For the record, I'm watching on a Panasonic
37" Plasma screen via a Samsung BD-P1500 Blu-ray player.
The sound is in DTS 5.1 and is fantastic for the wrestling scenes and everything you'd be looking for aurally, as are
the nightclub scenes for Cassidy's job, while the rest are mostly dialogue-driven with speech coming through without a
hitch.
The extras are as follows:
In The Ring (42:42):
A long feature that covers how the 35-day filming process went, where they filmed and also contains chat from key cast
and crew members, including the fact the film wasn't storyboarded so they just set up scenes and let them roll however
they turned out, which allowed for some additional creative freedom and helps tell a sort-of documentary style about it.
A major problem with this feature is that it isn't chaptered - especially since it's divided up into topics, so if
you stop watching part-way through and want to go back to a certain point, it requires fast-forwarding :(
Interview with Mickey Rourke (15:45):
Done in a Q&A style with questions posed in text onscreen before Mickey appears to give the answer.
Trailer (2:27): Presented in anamorphic 2.35:1.
However, at the start of the disc comes one thing I abhor - trailers. These should should be part of the extras and NOT
shoved before the main menu. We are not in the age of rental video. Hence, the titles featured won't get mentioned here,
even though one was a film that looks interesting. Another was an advert for a TV channel(!)
The menu mixes sound and images from the film in a neat way, there are English subtitles but the Chaptering is
appalling with just 12 over the near-two hours.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Blu-ray: 
From out of nowhere, Mickey Rourke has made a slow comeback over the last few years, but he's at his best in a long time with The Wrestler.
Mickey Rourke is a strange-looking creature these days after butchering his face with plastic surgery, but at least
here it can be used to good effect as a man beaten up by both life and his job. Marisa Tomei, as Randy's friend,
looks fantastic in the buff as she gives lapdances. She 44 and that rhymes with "Phwoar" (bit cheesy, I know but it's
true!). However, her character, Cassidy, is also feeling her age as it's the younger girls who get the most clients
while she's feeling similarly over the hill in a competitive world that thrives on youth. Evan Rachel Wood is also worth
a watch here, but without giving away the plot, she wasn't in it as much as I expected.
Mostly shot on hand-held camera, that does give a certain feel to the film that works well, but the print doesn't
feel Blu-ray-sharp as a result of both that and the grainy effect applied, although it's still good. The film is
presented in a 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen frame. For the record, I'm watching on a Panasonic
37" Plasma screen via a Samsung BD-P1500 Blu-ray player.
