12.1.09

The Wrestler

There are many things I find very doubtful or just boring about this movie.For one,its very transparent.Its constantly pressing what a nice and sympathetic guy the titular character,Randy "The Ram" Johnson is-he's friendly with kids,patient with his jackass boss and is softspoken and easygoing outside the ring.He's a wrestler but not the man we think or expect he is.I GET it.

The worst part about this fakey Hallmark charade is Evan Rachel Wood,the daughter character Stephanie.She has 4 scenes,in which every time she's a blatant plot device placed just to able Randy to show his "other" side.That is,to give his "I've been a horrible father" speeches while Stephanie displays some sort of extreme emotion.Her character has no other purpose,and we're told nothing about her-who's this black lady taking care of her,where does she go to school,why does she hate her father so much?We get a bit deeper with Marisa Tomei's character,basically she's the stripper with a heart and a son she's raising on her own.The two supporting roles seem as bare on screen as they are on paper.

The one thing that saves this from the crap pile,is Mickey Rourke's performance.Its a role that you wouldn't imagine anyone else filling,literally everything about him falls perfectly into place.My initial impression about the film right after watching it was that I didn't really like it,but over time the Randy character stuck.As I pointed out,the writing for this film was really obvious and the movie does run out of steam 30 minutes before it actually closes-but Rourke brings a humanness to the character that goes far beyond the script's thin exposition,and is incredible and tragic in many different ways.

+I think the above poster is spectacular.

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