International Cinema Festival of India

What do you mean you haven’t seen The Wrestler yet? It may well be one of the top ten movie downloads of the last decade! Everything you’ve head about this movie is true. Mickey Rourke gives the performance of a lifetime, making a strong comeback, and the film itself may well be director Darren Aronofsky’s masterpiece.

Rourke really does provide the heart and soul of this movie, and even the body, taking some real bumps in the name of giving a great show. He plays Randy The Ram Robinson, a wrestler who was huge in the eighties, during the hair metal days, and has since faded into obscurity. He still wrestles, but it doesn’t pay the bills alone, as he wrestles for small crowds, and he has to supplement his income with hours at the grocery store.

Randy’s lifestyle has alienated everyone he’s ever loved and seriously done a number on his body. He has to see if he can make a comeback, both in the ring, where he’s washed up, and in his personal life, where he doesn’t even have a loyal fanbase to keep him going.

The movie is heart wrenching, incredibly emotional, and while it shows Randy as he is, as a man who has hurt himself and others with his lifestyle, it never judges him or looks down on him. Randy the Ram is a lovable guy, and it becomes tragic that all cannot be forgiven so easily.

Again, it’s all about Mickey Rourke here. The story of the Wrestler is as much his as it is Randy’s. Rourke himself has made a few mistakes, and just like Randy, was on the comeback trail. So the result is that he doesn’t just play this role, he lived it. Interestingly, the role was going to go to Nicholas Cage, but Cage dropped out so that Rourke could take it.

Without Cage, they had to settle on a smaller budget, but the end result is a much smaller, more intimate film. Rourke wrestles for crowds of maybe a hundred people at a time, giving his all to each and every performance and bleeding it out for the fans.

The story is an old one, the characters are stock, but it never feels cliche or predictable. The movie is invested with such real humanity that it really feels like a unique, one of a kind tale of loss and redemption. Even if you weren’t so big on Pi and Requiem for a Dream, this may be Darren Aronofsky’s masterpiece, and it certainly shows a deeper level of humanity than his previous efforts.

Once the movie’s over and the acoustic song from Bruce Springsteen kicks in, take a moment to reflect on the story and what the ending really means. Rarely can a movie delve so deeply into issues of self destruction and loss and come out with a more positive and upbeat ending… Without really being tidy or saccharine sweet. The ending really drives home the whole point of the story, which is that you have to do what you want to do in life, no matter the price.

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