Until Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler stepped through the ropes to worldwide acclaim back in 2008, transferring the weird world of “Sports Entertainment” to the silver screen usually meant ludicrous action movies such as Hulk Hogan’s inadvertently hilarious No Hold’s Barred, or staggeringly obnoxious comedies like the patience testing Ready To Rumble would desperately try to keep up the pretence that professional wrestling was “real”.
However, those who watch and are passionate about wrestling know that the actual reality is more dangerous and harmful than oversold submission holds and carefully timed superkicks could ever be as these highly trained athletes put their bodies in for a weekly shit-kicking in order to absorb that roar of the crowd. Yes, the matches are predetermined and the moves are finessed, but the toll it takes on body and soul is undeniable and very real. Prepare to have your emotions piledriven into the canvas.
Back in the 80s, Robin Ramzinski was a big deal in professional wrestling when he performed under his ring name of Randy “The Ram” Robinson, but these days he’s way past his prime and wrestles for independent promotions on the weekends while making ends (barely) meet by working weekdays at a supermarket in New Jersey. After the glitz and glamour of his younger years, Randy still gets respect in the ring, but outside, in the real world, he’s struggling to pay his rent on time and mocked by his shit-heel boss.
Aside from his bouts inside the squared circle, the only respite he gets from his world of drudgery and aching limbs are his visits to the strip joint where he befriends Cassidy, a stripper who, like Randy, could be charitably label as past her prime and the two share an uneasy kinship.
However, the years of physical punishment and steroid use are finally catching up on Randy and after a particularly brutal hardcore match leads to him collapsing due to a heart attack, his doctors and a particularly noticable double bypass scar strongly suggest he retires. The timing couldn’t be worse as it’s rapidly approaching the 20th anniversary of one of his most famous matches and there’s call for him to put on a rematch with his old adversary, the Ayatollah.
However, his ailing health makes him yearn for contact more personal than a screaming crowd and while he attempt to spark up a relationship with Cassidy, he also tries to reconnect with his estranged daughter, Stephanie. But while his intentions are pure, the call of the ring becomes too much to bear and he’s torn between being an average joe and being hailed as a living god the second his theme music hits and he strides into an arena to the sound of countless fans chanting his name.
If anyone was to lay out the brutal life of a professional wrestler in harsh and cruel terms, I guess the man who directed Requiem For A Dream (aka. the most depressing movie ever made) would have been as good a pick as any, but in the hands of Aronofsky, The Wrestler becomes something incredibly poignant. Taking the usual rags to riches tale of most sports movie and burying it under a mound of regret and bitterness, the story takes its lead from the tragic instances that’s befallen numerous real life wrestlers as the business ruthlessly chews them up and spits them out. While following on the lace-up boots of the warts and all documentary Beyond The Mat and pre-empting the addictively harrowing Starz docu-series Dark Side Of The Ring, The Wrestler takes you past the pyro and lights of the WWE and drops you into what life is like for someone past their prime who can’t give up the life.
His days of grappling in huge, sold-out arenas long behind him, Randy plys his trade in crammed school halls, getting his meager pay in cash at the end of the night despite putting his aging body through hell. The movie delves deep into the minutiae of the sport, from the unsavory practice of pain killers and steroid use, to the bizarre nature of “blading” (hiding a thin sliver of razor on your person with the purpose of helping you bleed on cue), hell, the movie even touches upon the bleaching and tanning routine that Randy has to go through to keep that blonde, bronzed look. It’s fascinating as it is grim and the scenes where a bunch of washed-up wrestlers sitting around in virtually empty hall for a merchandise signing it genuinely upsetting as we watch these broken down ex-gladiators try to wring every last penny out of their fading fame.
Through it all, Mickey Rourke proves to be the perfect actor for the role as his tumultuous life mirrors that of The Ram to a fortuitous degree and to put it bluntly, the man is sensational. Less an example of acting as a case of an actor utterly embodying a role, at times you’ll be genuinely unsure where Randy ends and Rourke begins and not only does he imbue his role with craggy empathy (no one wants to grow old), but her proves to be impressively adept at the wrestling, too. Matching him is an equally magnificent Marisa Tomei as a stripper who is being constantly reminded by her customers that she’s no spring chicken anymore despite the actress being completely stunning. Just as discarded by life as Randy has and similarly trapped in a job where they are worshiped for limited periods of time by baying crowds, the only real difference between the two is that Cassidy has far stricter barriers between her professional life and her personal one, while Randy has none.
The level of detail here is second to none; eagle-eyed fans will no doubt spot many real wrestlers such as Ron (R-Truth) Killings, Claudio Castagnoli and the Blue Meanie among the hoards of real wrestlers and Randy even has an old Nintendo wrestling game with his character on it to further heighten just how much he can’t let his glory days go.
It all comes to a head when when Randy is forced to choose between the family and friendships he’s squandered and the temporary immortality he’s awarded by the adoration of screaming fans who have no clue how close his body is from giving up on him entirely and the final shot of him mounting the turnbuckle and preparing to launch into his finishing move, the Ram Jam, is every bit the equal of a battered and beaten Rocky Balboa declaring his love for Adrian. Whether you class it as a tragic ending of a man who won’t give up his dream, or a strangely happy one of a showman achieving what he was striving for at the cost of everything, I guarantee there won’t because dry eye in the house as The Wrestler pins your emotions to the mat for much longer than a measly three count.
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