DVD Review #5 The Wrestler

The Wrestler (2008) Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei Directed by Darren Aronofsky
Let me just say that recently I have been accused by a handful of people that I've lost some of my hopeless romantic sense that was once likable about me in the past...well they are right, I have, but there is still some left...its jaded...it's older...and maybe its romanticsim for others, i'm not applying it to myself anymore...and I think thats right for me. This movie is a little hopeless romantic in a very different way then you may think...watch it, and let me know if i'm right.

I don't think I made up my my mind on this movie until "The Boss" filled the screen at the very end when the credits roll with the cool song "The Wrestler" which is as good as anything he has done. Aronofsky best known for a crazy memorable and disturbing movie Requiem for a dream, does a great job with an aging Mickey Rourke and a crazy hot (she can't be 40) Marisa Tomei. This film is slow, quiet, and gets under your skin. I think if you watch it and your not in the mood, you might ask yourself why you give a crap about this guy, but if you watch it on the right day...then you will be absorbed by the life of Randy "The Ram" Robinson. We have seen the guy who tries to make amends with his daughter before, we have seen the washed up athlete before, and we have seen the futile attempts by many to make a last ditch effort not to be alone...but we haven't seen Aronofsky's version...until The Wrestler. As a guy who watched wrestling growing up (Huge Hitman Hart fan) a was fascinated by the part of "The Ram" played very well by Mickey Rourke, who is hanging on to his career as hard as he can so he doesn't have to live in the real world. It is such a harsh reality for "The Ram" to face (which if you have seen Requiem then you know how harsh this director can be), there is lot of layers to this guy, there is enough there to make you root for him, even though you know it might be a bad investment. We can all relate to screwing up our lives at one point or another, and we all know there are people out there that we invest in even though we know we shouldn't but for whatever reason we do it...we want to. That's "The Ram" go out and invest in this movie, put it on and i'm fairly certain you will think you have invested your time wisely.


(The Shawshank Scale 1-10) The story of The Ram warrants a 7.5

Evan Rachel Wood does a nice job as "The Ram's" daughter, she has grown into a very fine actress and we will see her at the Oscar podium eventually, I also can't say enough about Marisa Tomei who recently has hit us one after another in roles where she knocks it out of the park...I really think the travesty in this film was her not getting the Oscar. Mickey probably should have won as well, but as I have not seen Milk yet I will hold back.

Aronofsky has Robocop to look forward to in the future (2010) hopefully he can pull that off. As for Rourke he has Iron Man 2 where he plays whiplash...and it's possible he shows up for Rambo V...yeah I said Rambo V. Tomei has a really funny sounding Duplass Brothers comedy coming in (2010) that has yet to be titled, but has Jonah Hill and John C. Reilley in it, and Wood will star in the Jodie Foster Directed Flora Plum.