The Wrestler (2008)

The drama movie of 2008 shot by Darren Aronofsky and featuring the half-forgotten star of the '80es Mickey Rourke in the leading part proved to be an outstanding event in the world’s cinematography. Aronofsky managed to create a piercingly touching story of a big and strong man doing his hard and brutal business. This sharp contrast between the theme of the movie and the impression it produces is the main zest of The Wrestler.

The movie enjoyed a resounding success, getting positive and highly emotional reviews here and there. Thus, the Newsweek’s correspondent David Ansen wrote that the movie represented "a harmonic convergence of a player and part that happens once in a blue moon", and we completely agree with him. Moreover, the plot of The Wrestler resembles the life story of Rourke himself so much, that the script seems to have been written for him only. The actor, who abandoned his career for a considerable period of time, having devoted himself to professional boxing, was merely forgotten but then performed a triumphant comeback in 2005. His magnificent performance in Sin City marked a new era in the career of the aging sex-symbol from Nine 1/2 Weeks.

Randy "The Ram" Robinson is a professional and unbeaten wrestler whose star shone brightly in the '80es. At those times Randy was successful and rich and he also had a family. The events of the movie mainly cover his life twenty years later, when his star has set, and he is a lone wolf living in a trailer and participating in low-paid independent-promotion matches. However, he is still unbeaten and his master stroke the Ram Jam still works every time. In the anticipation of a rematch with his former opponent, Randy starts training more intensively and resorts to steroid usage. All this leads to a heart attack after one of the matches. Randy pulls through but the doctors forbid him to continue his trainings and performances, for he is sure not to survive another attack. Wrestling is the meaning of his life but Randy submits and even finds a work in a supermarket. Meanwhile he suffers one more drama: he is rejected by Stephanie (Evan Rachel Wood), his daughter whom he had left as a child. Then Stephanie gives him one more chance, but Randy misses this chance in a most stupid way. After some time Randy returns to his work, for this is the only thing left for him. The long-anticipated rematch with "The Ayatollah" finally takes place, and in the course of it Randy feels sharp pain in the heart. He refuses to stop fighting and applies his master stroke. These are the movie's last frames, so the spectators have only to guess whether the end is tragic or triumphant.

That ambiguity is a characteristic feature of Aronofsky's movies. His Oscar-rewarded Black Swan, to which The Wrestler is often compared, also has much to be explained by the director. The heroine of Natalie Portman is devoted to her profession of a ballerina and once in her life she achieves an absolute perfection. Being at the peak of her career she is at the same time on the verge of death. And the dénouement is also quite ambiguous.

The Wrestler finds some parallels with some other movies about sportsmen, fanatically devoted to their profession. For example, Million Dollar Baby directed by Clint Eastwood and featuring Hillary Swank in the leading role tells the tragic story of a boxer Maggie, who literally sacrifices all her life on the altar of sport.