The Wrestler

Darren Aronofsky is famous for his mind-bending and strange films like Requiem for a Dream, Pi and The Fountain so The Wrestler is something of a departure for him.  Structured and shot almost like a documentary, it follows Randy 'The Ram' Robinson, a washed-up former superstar of the wrestling circuit.  Where he once performed in front of a sold out Madison Square Garden with PPV audience of over a million, he, and others like him, now ply their trade in small hall venues with probably less than 200 people watching.

Over a decade past his best and physically broken down, needing glasses and a hearing aid he lives in a dilapidated trailer park in New Jersey and works part time in a supermarket. As the paychecks are small and unreliable, he occasionally finds himself locked out of his trailer and is forced to sleep in his truck.  When he's not stacking shelves in the warehouse, he applies strapping to his worn elbow and knee joints and relies on steroids to keep his body in the shape the crowd expects.
 
In a variety of superbly choreographed and executed bouts we see him cut his face open to make it look realistic, fight in a blood bath where his opponent uses a staple gun on him in a ring full of barbed wire and perform his signature move: The Ramjam.  After one of these events he collapses in the locker room and requires surgery which causes the doctor to advise only moderate exercise and an end to his wrestling career.

As all he knows is life between the ropes, Randy ignores the advice but decides to take stock of things, striking up a friendship with Cassidy, as stripper he knows and likes, and tries to patch things up with his estranged daughter who really wants nothing to do with him. 

Perfectly cast as Randy is Mickey Rourke, long removed from his own heyday in the '80s where he featured in such memorable films as Nine ½ Weeks, Angel Heart and Johnny Handsome.  Like Randy, he is also pretty beaten up with incredible features that perfectly suit a man who has spent his life taking blows to the head and body.  He puts in a performance that most would argue is the finest of his long career, culminating in BAFTA and Golden Globe wins and an Oscar nomination which many expected him to win.  Also Oscar nominated was Marisa Tomei as the 'stripper with a heart of gold' who shows moments of such tenderness, anger and pathos of which I didn't think she was capable.  In many senses she is Adrian to his Rocky and to an extent this is a clichéd sports story but Aronofsky gets under the skin of the wrestling circuit better than Stallone did with boxing, showing the downside of the fame and fortune, what happens when stars no longer shine so brightly and what happens in the locker room on the big night. 
 

I've always considered wrestling (at least the WWE variety) as fake. It clearly isn't - it's fixed as the men need to go out there, hit one another, drop their opponent from a height, land on them and insert sharp objects into their skin. That the outcome is predecided is probably known to the audience, but they don't care as what they want to see are their heroes and up and coming wrestlers perform acts of extreme violence and athleticism and give them their money's worth.
 
This was a film I hugely enjoyed at the cinema as it was involving and entertaining in a way that I didn't expect.  The Wrestler is all about Mickey Rourke and his incredible performance - he may have been memorable as Marv in Sin City, but this is real with no computer trickery and every mumbled line and jump off the ropes is a testament to his skill as an actor.  My only reservation is the sub-plot involving Stephanie, his daughter, which feels a little tacked on and unnecessary; we know he's a broken man who has burnt all his bridges - you don't need to see the results because a simple rebuttal on the telephone tells the story. 
 
This quibble aside, The Wrestler is a terrific film and one of the best of 2008. 

The Disc

Extra Features
Sadly there is no commentary with Darren Aronofsky or Mickey Rourke, but what you do get is a fairly comprehensive documentary/making of.  This shows the intricate process behind filming the wrestling scenes and how the picture was shot.  It is disappointing that neither Rourke nor Tomei appear in this and there is only a brief conversation with Evan Rachel Wood - it is dominated by crew members which isn't necessarily a bad thing.  All in all though, this is a revealing and interesting watch that shows you just about as much as a commentary would tell but without the contributions from writer/director and star.
 
There is a separate interview with Micky Rourke which is quite informative and a good listen as he reveals how much of himself he put into the character as he didn't believe in the dialogue as first scripted and changed it with Aronofsky to better reflect Randy. 
 
Finally, there is the theatrical trailer. 
 

Picture
Sticking with the low budget documentary aesthetic, the film has an intentionally grainy look as the camera follows Randy around with many shots of his back - it is quite a while before you see his face.  The contrast levels are superb and the colours suitably vibrant for a business that relies on appearances such as neon lycra, bleached-blonde hair and artificial tans.  When the blood matches come around, the reds are suitably bright and make it painful to watch.  Exterior shots are quite grim, matching the snowy and grey look of the New Jersey area in wintertime. 
 
Sound
For a moderately budgeted independent film the sound is mightily impressive with the DTS-HD Master Audio showing the roar of the crowd, slams on the mat as well as the ambient sounds like leaves blowing and birds twittering.  The film is wonderfully scored in a suitably mournful way, with Slash providing a couple of lovely licks on the electric guitar and the theme song, by Bruce Springsteen, is perfect for the end credits.  There is an interesting addition to the credits which give extra special thanks to Axl Rose, presumably for the use of Sweet Child o' Mine which Randy uses for one of his ring entrances - as a GNR fan I thought it sounded fantastic pumped through the surround system.
 

Overall

I didn't think The Wrestler would pick up the Best Picture Oscar because there were better films released in 2008 but it was one of the films I enjoyed the most and left the cinema happy knowing that I'd seen something well-crafted and featuring career-best performances by two of the cast, one of which was the best I'd seen that year from anybody. 
 
This is a decent disc of a very fine film and one definitely worth renting and, for those who liked it in the cinema, worth buying.