Tuesday 27 January 2009

The Wrestler [2008]


Directed by American filmmaker Darren Aronofsky, The Wrestler is a gem of a small-scale movie that has the ability to endear itself to its viewers despite never attempting to be a mainstream or an overtly sentimentalized film. The movie tells the story of Randy “The Ram” Robinson, once a huge superstar, but now a has-been wrestler who shows his skills in unflattering rings and struggling for a regular flow of income. The greatest aspect of the movie is that, because it has a very simple premise, it manages to present an intimate and moving portrayal of the life of the physically bruised and battered man desperately trying to cling to his lost glory days, striving to mend the fractured relationship with his estranged daughter, and hoping to settle down with a stripper he likes spending his time with. Mickey Rourke has given a stupendous performance as the eponymous wrestler – a middle-aged, defeated, severely lonely man living in an emotional vacuum; the only thing he knows he’s good at is performing dangerous, gravity-defying stunts. The touching story boasts of layered characterizations, understated though extremely palpable pathos and humanism, a truly magnificent final shot, and a terrific original song by Bruce Springsteen.









Director: Darren Aronofsky
Genre: Drama/Psychological Drama
Language: English
Country: US

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry about the delay... As you said, it is the quiet nature of the film and its production values that elevates it on the first level...

Shubhajit said...

No problems at all... in fact, its time i thanked you for being a regular visitor to my blog...

sitenoise said...

So, do you think he, uh, you know ... at the end? Or do think the power of the last shot is in its 100% absolutely not saying?

Shubhajit said...

Well, i'm sure that's for everyone to wonder. Its quite likely he died when the credits started rolling. But yeah, as you said, the effectiveness of the ending would have been lost had Randy's fate been spelled out for us. Randy's existence was devoid of life, so death wouldn't have been such a bad thing after all. The important thing was that, he made us realize, when he did those crazy stunts, the line between survival and life blurred for him.