I saw The Wrestler on Wednesday night, with some great AU friends of mine. After downing a few pitchers of Coors Light, we headed to 23rd st and 8th ave cinema and luckily got into the nearly sold out movie. We had to sit in the front row, but for this movie it actually added to the experience.
It was Amazing. December was surely the month of great cinema.
Being a wrestling fan growing up surely did help, but a fan of acting is all you needed to be to enjoy The Wrestler.
Mickey Rourke BLEW me away. The raw emotion, raw action, and raw sense of authenticity attached to this film simply blew me away.
This film gives credit to those out there who have been forgotten. Sure, wrestling is fake, because the decisions of the matches are pre-determined. But what the wrestlers do, day in and day out, 250 days a year for the well known superstars, is beyond words. The fact that day after day a wrestler of my childhood is found dead is really no shocker based on the life style wrestlers live in hopes of making it big. The bumps, bruises, and falls take a tole on their bodies and souls, and this movie tells the story of what happens when the wrestlers leave the ring and go behind the curtain. The broken bones, broken families, and broken lives that most forget.
Many wrestlers give it their all in the ring, and the ring often doesn’t gives back. What happens when the lights go down? The Wrestler attempts to tell the story.
Before I saw the film, I was behind Brad Pitt in his Benjamin Bean performance, but after seeing Micky Rourke in The Wrestler’s lead role, He should win the Oscar. Hands down.
