Move Review: The Wrestler

Yesterday, Frank and I exercised our unemployment privilege by taking in a matinee of The Wrestler. Following Sean's advice, I snuck in a couple of beers to heighten our cinema going experience. I don't want to get off on a Tarantino-esque rant, but movies and beer go together like peanut butter and chocolate. I don't know why they don't allow booze in theaters. Next time, I'm smuggling in a six-pack.

In The Wrestler, Mickey Rourke plays Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a beaten shell of a man desperately trying to hold onto his former glory. The film studies the humbling brutality of a WWF wrestler who was once an 80's icon but is now downtrodden, forgotten, and broken. This is the role of the lifetime because Rourke basically just needs to be himself. All he has to do is replace the word "actor" with "wrestler", cut, print, that's a wrap, and we're done. Next scene. With that said, Rourke nails it Mary Lou Retton style... perfect 10 as he sticks the landing. The vunerability he brings to the role breaks your heart. Meanwhile, his Hollywood 'roided body and Michael Jackson face hauntingly mirror the ravenges of his character.

While all the little gold man talk surrounds Rourke, the surprising performance is Marisa Tomei. As a used-up exotic dancer, Tomei's experience parallels the wrestler. Past their primes, both struggle as the world moves on. Like Rourke, Tomei brings a sense of honesty and goodness to the role while expressing a tragic vunerability. Somehow she manages to infuse this into the performance while being half-naked in most of her scenes. Many other high profile actresses have donned the g-string of late, but none of them have come close to humanizing the character like Marisa Tomei. Tomei is excellent and deserves any role she wants after this performance.

So obviously I like this movie. If I had to find something negative about the flick, I would mention that the plot is predictable. From the first twenty minutes of the film, you can pretty much take your pick of three endings. For those who are curious and want the spoilers, they went with option number two.