The Wrestler (2008) Review

The Wrestler (2008)

Directed by Darren Aronofsky, The Wrestler is a drama film that depicts the story of a retired wrestler Randy ‘the Ram’ Robinson, played by Mickey Rourke. Randy, once one of the most popular wrestlers in the 80s, is now nothing more than just an ‘old, broken down piece of meat’ who can’t even pay for his rent on time. He is on the verge of starvation as he constantly hurts himself in weekend fights in small and cheap wrestling stages where he has to risk his life. Throughout the first half of the movie, Randy struggles through his way for nothing more than a peaceful life, only to be struck with a sudden heart attack after a painful wrestling match. With such shock, Randy gets into a long talk with Cassidy, a stripper he falls in loves with and decides to completely retire from being a professional wrestler and go back to his only daughter Stephanie. However, as he fails to keep his promise with Stephanie, Randy realizes that the only place he can hold and go back to is the small square ring that he dedicated his life to.

One of the best elements of the movie is lighting. The grim and soft lighting, added to the movie’s elements of Mise-en Scene very well conveys the sad and depressing mood that the plot overall depicts. The soft and dim lighting behind Randy and Cassidy in the strip club helps to create a romantic/alluring mood while the two get into amorous talks. In more than one of the wrestling scenes in the movie, pretty harsh lightings are used to depict the intenseness and hardships that Randy has to go through as a ‘Professional’ wrestler.

An interesting fact about this movie is that it very well depicts the life of Mickey Rourke himself. Once considered as one of the most attractive movie stars in hollywood, Rourke had degraded into nothing but an ill-tempered old man. His experiences on the boxing ring (where he thought true men really belonged to) had rewarded him a series of plastic operations which turned him into what some people even referred to as a ‘monster.’ Like Randy, Rourke finally realized that the only place he belonged to now was Hollywood and indeed, he has made a fantastic comback to the film world with this movie.

Below is the official trailer of the movie.