Gladiatorial wrestling is one of those human activities I despair of. Like boxing and football, it represents men celebrating brute force that inevitably turns brutal. But reports of the similarities between the filmic resurrection of Randy the Ram, and the acting resurgence of Mickey Rourke, whom I remember with affection from years ago, led me to watching The Wrestler on DVD.
Rourke is pitch perfect as professional wrestler Randy, coming up to his twenty-year anniversary rematch against The Ayatollah. Director Darren Aronofsky (not someone I’d come up against before) takes us deeply (and yes, affectionately) into the semi-fake world of bulked-up men choreographing extreme aggression and violence. We see Randy, his body a sculpture rapidly breaking down, before, during and after cheap wrestling matches amongst baying crowds. And when I call the profession semi-fake, it’s still horrifyingly physical and tough (just look forward to the staple gun scene). Despite myself, I was fascinated by this behind-the-scenes look at wrestling, especially the easy camaraderie.
At heart The Wrestler is about Randy butting up against his own mortality. When his body begins to break down at last, something new stirs in him. He attempts to move along his shallow relationship with a strip club girl (played wonderfully well by Marisa Tomei), he has a go at a fulltime supermarket job, and he tracks down the daughter he abandoned years before. The script and Aronofsky’s skilfully paced direction ratchet up the tension around the central question of Randy’s purpose in life.
Naturally enough, the soundtrack is heavy metal, most of which I didn’t recognize, but it suits the plot and theme well. The superb closing title song by Bruce Springsteen won a Golden Globe Award. Mickey Rourke’s acting also landed him a Golden Globe award and it’s well deserved. The Wrestler is realistic, moving and very human.