Theme and director’s intention:
"Mr. Aronofsky, whose earlier movies include the brain-teasing “Pi” and the swooning, fantastical, unwatchable “Fountain,” here makes a convincing show of brute realism". -Scott
Darren Aronofsky alchemises Rourke's conceit into a terrifically engaging, likable and even vulnerable performance. Bradshaw - The Guardian
Separate elements and their
relationship to the whole:
"The supermarkets, trailer parks, V.F.W. halls and run-down amphitheaters of New Jersey are convincingly drab, and the grain of the celluloid carries a sour and salty aura of weariness and defeat".- Scott
He is Randy "Ram" Robinson, the washed-up star of the 80s professional wrestling scene, still roaring and crashing around the circuit to a diminishing crowd of nerdy male fans and dead-eyed blonde women keen to "party" after the show. Bradshaw -The Gaurdian
"The supermarkets, trailer parks, V.F.W. halls and run-down amphitheaters of New Jersey are convincingly drab, and the grain of the celluloid carries a sour and salty aura of weariness and defeat".- Scott
He is Randy "Ram" Robinson, the washed-up star of the 80s professional wrestling scene, still roaring and crashing around the circuit to a diminishing crowd of nerdy male fans and dead-eyed blonde women keen to "party" after the show. Bradshaw -The Gaurdian
Objective evaluation of the film:
"When the designated bad guy lands a blow, the crowd boos; when he’s on the receiving end, it cheers. The basic rule is laid out succinctly by an old nemesis of Randy’s: “I’m the heel, and you’re the face.”- Scott
The Wrestler has the intimacy of a fly-on-the-wall documentary. No stunt men were harmed -- or used -- in the fight sequences. But the drama makes for vibrant art - Lisa Kennedy
Denver Post
Despite the low-tech feel, The Wrestler is very tight and disciplined. The score is spare but effective, nothing is wasted in dialogue or action, and the fight choreography and stunts are incredible. Rourke is phenomenal. - Karina Montgomery
Cinerina
Extras on the disc include a featurette bringing together filmmakers and wrestlers to talk about the movie, and a Bruce Springsteen music video. - Brian Webster
Apollo Guide
"When the designated bad guy lands a blow, the crowd boos; when he’s on the receiving end, it cheers. The basic rule is laid out succinctly by an old nemesis of Randy’s: “I’m the heel, and you’re the face.”- Scott
The Wrestler has the intimacy of a fly-on-the-wall documentary. No stunt men were harmed -- or used -- in the fight sequences. But the drama makes for vibrant art - Lisa Kennedy
Denver Post
Despite the low-tech feel, The Wrestler is very tight and disciplined. The score is spare but effective, nothing is wasted in dialogue or action, and the fight choreography and stunts are incredible. Rourke is phenomenal. - Karina Montgomery
Cinerina
Extras on the disc include a featurette bringing together filmmakers and wrestlers to talk about the movie, and a Bruce Springsteen music video. - Brian Webster
Apollo Guide
Subjective evaluation of the film:
"He is estranged from his daughter, Stephanie, (Evan Rachel Wood), whose anger when he tries to reconcile suggests some major mess-ups in the past. " - Scott
"He is estranged from his daughter, Stephanie, (Evan Rachel Wood), whose anger when he tries to reconcile suggests some major mess-ups in the past. " - Scott
Rourke
wears his scars (both physical and emotional) with such naked humanity
that his performance becomes a kind of on-screen outpouring of his own
grief and waylaid potential - James Kendrick
Q Network Film Desk
Whatever
mistakes and indignities and turmoil led Mickey Rourke to where he is
now, whatever demons have plagued him -- they all lead to the 1 hour and
55 minutes of magnificence that is his performance in' The Wrestler.'
- Matt Soergel
Florida Times-Union
[Rourke's]
performance here is so good and unshowy that you wind up almost happy
to keep watching that mangled mug struggle for redemption. - Dave White
Movies.com
The film’s level of ambition:
"While the fights are choreographed, the pain and the blood are frequently real. We are privy to tricks of the trade, like the tiny bit of razor blade that Randy uses to open a cut on his face in the middle of a bout. And we witness a horrifying match involving broken glass, barbed wire and a staple gun, all of it agreed upon by the combatants."-Scott
"While the fights are choreographed, the pain and the blood are frequently real. We are privy to tricks of the trade, like the tiny bit of razor blade that Randy uses to open a cut on his face in the middle of a bout. And we witness a horrifying match involving broken glass, barbed wire and a staple gun, all of it agreed upon by the combatants."-Scott
Savour
one of cinema's rawest talents finally powerslamming his way to glory
and be grateful that Aronofsky dragged himself off the ropes on
countless occasions to convince the money men to finance the movie with
such a seemingly unbankable lead actor. - Ben Rawson-Jones
Digital Spy
There
was no character to root for more strongly in spite of himself in 2008
than Randy the Ram, and "The Wrestler" spat and bled his physical poetry
- an elegy of emasculation and exhaustion building, in its final shot,
to all the exhilaration he needed. - Nick Rogers
Suite101.com
The
movie presses too hard and too often, but the performances are strong
enough to withstand the melodramatic impulses, and the themes of
isolation and self-destructiveness are too sharply realized to be
trivialized. - Tom Maurstad
Dallas Morning News
Words you found interesting:
"But Randy is also, outside the ring, something of a heel"-Scott
"But Randy is also, outside the ring, something of a heel"-Scott
Relationship to film
movements/genres/ relation to other filmmakers’ work:
"About that face. Mr. Aronofsky takes his time showing it, trailing behind Mr. Rourke and allowing us sidelong glances for the first few minutes of the film, before disclosing the battered, lumpy yet still strangely beautiful wreck of what we remember from “Diner” or “The Pope of Greenwich Village.” -Scott
Perhaps Aronofsky was also playfully hinting at Roland Barthes's ruminations in his 1957 essay The World of Wrestling: "I have heard it said of a wrestler stretched on the ground: 'He is dead, little Jesus there, on the cross ...'" There is, however, nothing little about Mickey Rourke. -Bradshaw - The Guadian.
"About that face. Mr. Aronofsky takes his time showing it, trailing behind Mr. Rourke and allowing us sidelong glances for the first few minutes of the film, before disclosing the battered, lumpy yet still strangely beautiful wreck of what we remember from “Diner” or “The Pope of Greenwich Village.” -Scott
Perhaps Aronofsky was also playfully hinting at Roland Barthes's ruminations in his 1957 essay The World of Wrestling: "I have heard it said of a wrestler stretched on the ground: 'He is dead, little Jesus there, on the cross ...'" There is, however, nothing little about Mickey Rourke. -Bradshaw - The Guadian.
References:
Scott, A.O. " Hard Knocks both given and taken". Rev of The Wrestler, Director Aaron Aronofsky.
The New York Times 16 Dec 2008
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