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By Halle Marchall
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Friday, 16 January 2009 |
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A golden-haired figure in bright spandex pants, Herculean in physique but defeated in spirit, slumps in a chair with his back to the camera, muscles rippling as he fiddles with the medical tape on his arms or possibly shoots up one of the drugs from the small pharmacy he carries with him.
The opening scene of The Wrestler becomes a metaphor for the rest of the film. The tape on the fighter’s arms stands for the main characters’ desperate attempts to hold together fractured public personas which, although not able to remove it completely, mask the pain of their personal lives.
Randy ‘The Ram’ Robinson (Mickey Rourke) is a championship-winning professional wrestler in the waning years of his career who works a circuit of second-rate shows in order to maintain his bare-necessities lifestyle. He pursues the affections of Cassidy (Marisa Tomei), a nightclub dancer and single mother who is often passed over by men interested in younger women. After a particularly gruesome match and a life-altering experience, Randy tries to renew ties with his estranged daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) and find a new identity outside the world of wrestling.
Although the plot line is perhaps a little too straightforward and generic, there are moments when the characters shine. References to Randy’s and Cassidy’s actual names, Robin and Pam, highlight the confusion and pain that occur when the characters attempt to hide their real personalities behind projected images of themselves.
The quasi-documentary style of the film, the handheld camera filming technique, and the minimalist soundtrack all lend a gritty realism to the film and achieve a refreshingly less-than-polished feel, making the characters’ emotional highs and lows seem that much more genuine.
The viewer is endeared to the main characters as they struggle to find joy and ward off despair working menial jobs in all their fluorescent-lighted dinginess. For those interested in something other than a romantic comedy this season, The Wrestler is the one to watch. In The Wrestler, like in pro wrestling, whether the action is scripted or not, the emotions are real.
* * * Director: Darren Aronofsky
Rating: K 15
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