The Wrestler: Reviewish.

So I finally made the drive into San Francisco to see The Wrestler, Mickey Rourke's new picture in which he plays a past his prime professional wrestler from the 80s. In the year 2008/2009 he's not what he once was, yet he still thrives on the crowd. It's his life. The only life he knows, really. But when you are in the twilight of your career, your body is breaking down, and you are all alone what do you do next?

That's really where The Wrestler picks up. Randy "The Ram" Robinson sees his paydays getting smaller and realizes he doesn't know how to live life as not a wrestler. Then he's forced to when he suffers a heart attack following a particularly brutal and violent match...With Necro Butcher of all people. Necro Butcher is a real life "death match" wrestler. And he's brilliant. And in the movie he was quite brilliant. His backstage planning with The Ram was really interesting and I think that's what makes this movie. It's the other side of wrestling. The side most of us don't see. People planning out their matches, shows coming together, wrestlers outside of the ring living their everyday lives. Following The Ram's heart attack he's told he can no longer wrestle. What does he do now?

Spoilers to follow, highlight for goodness:
Ultimately The Ram fails in his bid to find life outside of wrestling. His blossoming relationship with Cassidy (Marissa Tomei), a stripper he finds himself regularly visiting, is constantly shut down as he is "just a customer." His attempts to rekindle his relationship with his daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) are shot to hell more than once by either his mistakes in the past or even his mistakes in the present. His deli counter job is lost when he flips out, says fuck more than anyone on earth, bleeds all over everything, and knocks the cereal down. Fucking Ram...

In the end the Ram goes for one more match, a rematch of his biggest match of allo time. 20 years later it's Randy The Ram vs. The Ayatollah (Earnest "The Cat" Miller) one more time. Just when it looks like one of his stories, his relationship with Cassidy, is about to end happily, he risks it all for the limelight one more time. And it's the end of The Ram. During the match his heart starts to give out and as he goes for one final Ram Jam, the movie ends. Just ends.

Two conclusions can be drawn. The first is why the fuck weren't the storylines that were left hanging revisited? What about his daughter? What about Cassidy? The other, obviously, is that they were left hanging because The Ram was dead. He died doing what he loved with the only real family he knows, the fans.

So yeah, that's a lot of spoilers, but it's hard not to spoil this one. It's a great movie though, and as a wrestling fan it's all the more interesting. A great movie and a look at the side of wrestling people don't like to talk about. It's not all glitz and glamor. The cast is brilliant and at many times the movie feels like a documentary.

And just in case you aren't sold yet...LOTS of nudity.

8.5/10