Wrestling, the WWF/WWE variety, may be scripted and staged but it doesn’t mean it isn’t real. It’s entertaining, dramatic, humourous and violent, but it’s also very human. Admittedly I love wrestling. A love reinforced by The Wrestler.
The audience knows it’s staged, the wrestler knows the audience knows, but it doesn’t matter because it’s a show. Like going to the theatre, you go to an arena to watch a very physical, dramatic and action-packed play. Wrestlers perform and improvise but they also inflict intense physical pain. It’s not an easy skill to attain.
The Wrestler is a tale of what happens when a professional wrestler, Randy “The Ram” Robinson, comes down from his extreme highs and the choices he makes to regain those highs. Director Darren Aronofsky, with a screenplay written by Robert D. Siegel, tells this story simply, skilfully and to great effect.
From all accounts the film accurately echoes the experiences of professional wrestlers when they fall out of the limelight – the gaping hole that’s left behind and the consequences of neglecting every other aspect of their life for their profession. It’s heartrending material because you believe it happens.
The Wrestler is a story but it’s greatest achievement is a brilliant performance. Like a wrestler is their character, Mickey Rourke is “The Ram”. He doesn’t just look and act the part, Rourke, a professional actor and boxer, through his performance, becomes a real professional wrestler. Even other wrestlers accept him as one of their own.
It’s Rourke’s perfomance that stands out the most amongst an already standout film. Rourke’s performance is skillful, entertaining and uncomfortable to watch, and at its core, very human, and it’s this aspect which makes The Wrestler a memorable film for many years to come.