|
This movie highlights Mickey Rourke as the Wrestler Randy Robinson who is now towards the later end of a long and popular career as a Wrestler. Other central characters are Cassidy played by Marissa Tomei and the Wrestler’s daughter Stephanie played by Evan Rachel Ward. Randy, has had success and accolades as a well known and followed wrestler on the circuit but he seems to be paying various prices for this that are starting to have a steep cost. One of these is that this carefully constructed world of wrestling, and having many fans and promotions to these fans, is about all he knows and feels comfortable with and he seems to have been okay with neglecting to expand or tend to anything else including the relationship with his daughter Stephanie and his ability to work through anything else patiently. His turn towards what is necessary to do apparently to be very successful in wrestling has included injecting himself with what are apparently steroids which are now having side effects damaging his body. His possible turning to something else other than wrestling becomes a central theme to this movie and there is the question of whether he can make this turn or if there is now anything left to turn too. From this a major theme that develops for all the central characters is whether it is too little and too late and what if anything can be salvaged from here. Cassidy, works giving lap dances at the club, and while this involves reaching out to people, an artificial line is there that doesn’t seem to allow her to connect a bit more deeply to anyone as everyone remains in the category of customer. She does befriend Randy, who is now becoming a regular at the club and he tries to bring the friendship out of the club. In the meantime also, as his health is faltering, he wants to rekindle a relationship with his daughter Stephanie, and from her point of view this is coming through with too little and too late. Some of the scenes in this movie are visually haunting to where you could say they have the feel of a post apocalypse. One scene that is particularly poignant is when Randy and Cassidy who has a daughter also, meet outside the club for “one beer” and talk about how the 80’s were good. And the 90’s weren’t so good. They share a brief quick attempt at a kiss as well as one beer in the spirit of fondness but you think they could have had a relationship that spanned all these years gone yonder that might have been great, but now it seems just this little is here now compared to all that might had been. The wrestling scenes were pretty rough, and the movie runs through several early. From this you would think most people wouldn’t be able to do this sport, and it also makes you think of the roughness of football as a parallel sport where the participants are getting thrown and trounced all over the place. As the movie progresses you see that the group of wrestlers are really friends despite their seeming animosity in the ring, and sports are really like that where there is this idea of all of us are in this together and there is a camaraderie that has its beauty to that. Even after an NBA game, the players shake hands as if they are buddies and many really are despite playing for rival teams. Another haunting scene is when Cassidy is having a night at the club where all her potential customers seem to be ignoring her as the camera pans around, she spots Randy, talks to him briefly and then looks around again and realizes that nobody is going to connect with her right now and she can’t even find anything at the lowest common denominator and she makes the on the fly decision to go back and hang with Randy in his corner of the club. This scene was a metaphor for her limited in scope and crumbling world and seemingly inability to find more and how everything around her seemed to have a vacancy to it and it really wasn't necessarily her fault it was just the reality of the way it is. Within this overall vacancy there really wasn't much left to reach for. Another great scene was when Randy, now experiencing health problems starts out jogging and has difficulty doing that. This scene goes into some of the current issues of sports in general, where there has been urgency towards things like steroids for players with a large fan and financial base, but they can potentially take away everything from the person who is in the sport, including as this scene depicts the ability to go out for a simple jog. And that has got to hurt for the person who does have the sport as something also to go to and go with as part of their main comfort zone. The ill winds of the side effects of steroids can bloom in rather sooner than one might think. Overall the movie has more of an indie film feel rather than a slick Hollywood production but it is very effective in bringing out the characterizations. The central conflict is whether these characters can muster from somewhere enough to make a turn now, or whether it is still going to be too little and too late. The acting performances in this movie will stand the test of time.
Related Articles -
wrestling, movies, review,
| 
