The Wrestler ☆☆☆☆

As the Oscars are on tomorrow night I thought I should start catching up on previous Oscar nominated films I have stored on the TiVo, first it was The Wrestler.

It was nominated in 2008 for 2 Academy Awards, for leading male and supporting actress. It won Mickey Rourke (Wild Orchid, Sin City) a BAFTA, but strangely nothing for script, direction, or even best picture - not even a nomination.
This I find incredibly odd as the film is fantastic, so I checked the nominations for the Oscars that year. Slumdog Millionaire won, yes agree with that, and the other nominations dealt with politics, the Nazis, homosexuality, and ageing backwards (Benjamin Button) so you can sort of see why The Wrestler got missed off. However now having seen both Milk and The Wrestler Mickey was kinda robbed. Yes Penn put in a great performance as gay politician Harvey Milk but the raw intensity of Rourke's performance deserved an award from the American Academy not just the British.

This goes some way to explain why the Academy have so many films nominated for Best Picture these days, in fact it was the next year they had ten nods, strangely only nine this year with a lot of critics fuming about the list.

Back to The Wrestler, as you may have noticed I rather enjoyed the film! It was honest and heartbreaking, and quite a difference compared to Darren Aranofsky's other work, at least those that I have seen.
Unlike Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan, or The Fountain there is little need for special effects or out of body experiences.
The story follows Randy 'The Ram' Robinson, a wrestler from the '80s who is living on the breadline so that he can keep performing. Then after one particularly savage match he has a heart attack, leading him to have to re-evaluate his life, reconnect with his daughter, and try to have a normal relationship with a stripper he used to frequent.

Its a huge struggle for Randy even before the heart attack, and you see these tricks they pull in the ring, the damage they cause their bodies for entertainment and wonder why would anyone put themselves through it. And then you see Marisa Tomei's (My Cousin Vinny) character Pam/Cassidy, the stripper with whom Randy would like to be more than client to. Her life is equally depressing, getting older is never easy but these two professions require perfection for their audiences, so appearances are both deceptive but also crucial.

As with all Aranofkys work the story will break your heart if you let it, and the ending will never reveal exactly what happens to the character(s), he prefers an audience to create their own ending. My mind tends toward the tragic, and the build up of the last five minutes I think is pretty convincing that it can be no other way. However everyone should be able to make their own minds up, hence why I am being so vague and non-commital right now.

The direction is deftly handled, it is not refined, playing out more like a documentary than Hollywood movie. The focus is so intent upon Randy that I wondered sometimes if it was my breathing I could hear or his. The build up of the fights, small though they are compared with WWE, is so intense that even when Randy is walking through to his job on a deli counter you almost forget thats where he is going because the crowd noises are softly built up as he walks.

As previously said I think Rourke deserved the Oscar that year, the way he plays Randy its almost like he is telling his own story. Rourke, if you don't know, was a successful (and attractive) actor in the 1980s and early nineties, but gave it up to become a boxer full time, almost destroying his face and health. Though his resume shows he worked solidly through the years, in 2005 a new generation was introduced to a gravelly voiced and intense actor in Sin City, and his star was effectively reborn. However Randy is like Rourke the boxer, taking crappy jobs to pay for his passion, except he cannot give it up despite what it is doing to his body.

Marisa Tomei is also fantastic as Pam/Cassidy, and deserved her nominations. She brings realism to the situation, showing that life is tough and crappy but single mother's more often than not do what they have to in order to ensure their children are happy and healthy. She is also the chink of light that could save Randy, if only he would let her.
Evan Rachel Wood (True Blood, Thirteen) appears as Randy's daughter, putting in a stellar perfomance as a girl who wants to trust her father will come through, but has been hurt too many times before.

This is definitely a film I would recommend, especially if you have seen Black Swan or any other Aranofsky offering and wonder if he can make a 'normal' film. It is a beautiful and heartbreaking tale of a man at the end of a so called career but refuses to accept it. It is also an insight into the world of wrestling away from the TV cameras, and the torture these men go through to make the crowds erupt with glee.

Do watch it, I hope you won't regret the time you spent doing so.