Towards the end of Darren Aronofsky and writer Robert Siegel's The Wrestler, one character makes a decision, and then another character makes a decision based on the first one. Both decisions are of a sort that I've seen made by many, many characters in many, many movies, so at this point in the film I was thinking, "Wait...is The Wrestler going to be that kind of movie!?" The answer to that question turned out to be "Well, it is and it isn't." But mostly isn't.Up until my brief moment of distress, I thought that The Wrestler was pretty terrific. In the role of Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a professional wrestler who is way past his prime and finding himself wrestling in venues that alternately reminded me of local independently-run gymnasiums and dog-fight arenas, Mickey Rourke is absolutely astounding. I don't think it's going too far at all to say that if, for some bizarre reason, Mickey Rourke had turned down this role (and he's done things far more bizarre than that) then this movie could not have been made. Oh, they would have found somebody else, I'm sure, and they would have made a movie, but they wouldn't have been able to make this movie. Who else is so physically perfect for this role? Rourke is middle aged, he's ruggedly powerful, and he looks all beat to hell. Add to that the fact that, when the mood strikes him, he can act his balls off (literally), and you realize that any other casting choice would have been a step down. The Wrestler isn't just a career performance; it is the reason Rourke was put on this planet.
And Siegel and Aronofsky (and Rourke) have constucted so many wonderful moments in this film, so many small details are gotten just right -- among my favorites include the Ram's taste in gifts, and the moment when he invites a neighbor kid over to play Nintendo. The Nintendo scene features some of Rourke's best acting the entire film, as he struggles to follow the kid's end of their conversation because he not only is too old to know what kids like anymore, but the kid is talking into his bad ear ("Have you heard of Call of Duty 4?" "What? 'Call it Duty Four'?"). I also loved the scene where the Ram, at his weekday job at a grocery store, is first made to work behind the store's deli counter. When have you ever seen such a job presented in a film where the character doing the job actually enjoys it? Where it's been presented as anything but a soul-crushing endeavor fit only for those not fortunate enough to live in a city? Granted, Rourke's boss (played by stand-up comic Todd Barry) is an asshole of the movie-boss variety, but this particular scene is so terrific, and so unusual, and so funny, without ever feeling less than natural, that I was pretty much completely on-board with the film by that time. The rest of The Wrestler could have been about the Ram working the deli counter, as far as I was concerned.
Still, the film is great when it deals with his wrestling career, too. The film depicts pro wrestling as something that only a lunatic would want to take part in, but it does so without condescending to the people who actually do take part in it. The Ram has an easy friendship with his colleagues, those who work in the ring and out, and his conversations with them have the kind of flow that shop-talk between two or more people who've worked in the same profession for many years always has (even if you get the sense that, sometimes, the Ram would rather just be left alone). And all these guys are professional. They want to do their jobs well -- in the locker room after a particularly brutal match, the doctors who tend to the Ram know what they're doing, and they're dialogue with the Ram is brief and considerate (it's brief because they have work to do). None of the scenes that include or somehow revolve around wrestling devolve into depicting the kind of ostentatious grime (with one possible exception, a scene about an autograph signing, but I have to say that part felt dead-on to me, too) that most films add because they think that's how certain people live, even though the filmmakers have not actually gone out to find out what the truth is. I got the sense that Aronofsky and Siegel know whereof they speak.
But the story moves on, and becomes, as I indicated before, a little rote. The Ram's relationship with his estranged daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) and his stripper friend Cassidy (Marisa Tomei) begins to follow a very familiar pattern. And the Ram's specific crisis in the film starts to dovetail a little too neatly with Cassidy's. Despite all the beautiful build up, and all the meticulous attention to the details of the life and career of haggard, middle-aged pro wrestler, The Wrestler suddenly became ordinary. Well made, and beautifully acted, but ordinary. And then it ended, and the ending is about as perfect as you could hope for. Siegel and Aronofsky were following a familiar pattern so they could give us something unfamiliar, uncompromising, and deeply moving.
I'd be lying if I didn't point out that, for me, a sizable amount of the ending's power comes from the Bruce Springsteen song that plays over the closing credits. Never before have I felt that a song that isn't even played over a particular scene added so much to the overall emotional impact of a film. But Springsteen's song (which I quote in this post's title) does just that, and when people in the theater where I saw The Wrestler started getting up in the middle of it, I got frustrated. "Why are you leaving??" I thought. "The movie's not over until this song is over!" What can you do? People are morons. Anyway, I thought of closing this review by quoting the song's refrain, but that would be unfair to anyone who hasn't seen the film yet. It would be the same as giving away the ending.
8 comments:
Great writeup, Bill. I also loved the film, and the deli scene, and so many other little bits that Rourke puts into this performance, and the Springsteen song of course, which is maybe the best thing he's written since Nebraska. It's a film, as you suggest, that could have been totally rote, following a very familiar template, and yet its style is so loose and interesting, and its central performance so overpowering, that it is elevated tremendously. It's a fine film.
Oh, and just to give you nightmares: apparently the studio pressure for this movie was to get Nicolas Cage in the lead, which Cage wanted to play. For obvious reasons, Aronofsky insisted on Rourke.
Thanks, Ed. I'd heard that about Cage, but I was under the impression that it was just a rumor. Ah well. You know, I kind of feel bad for Nicolas Cage. To quote Lisa Simpson, who was speaking about Kevin Costner at the time: "He tries so hard."
And that Springsteen song is tremendous. In its mixture of a very simple structure and idea, and unusual imagery, it reminds me of Tom Waits. I don't talk about the Oscars 'round these parts very often, but how it got left off of the Best Song category is truly beyond me. I mean, what the hell.
Might be a rumor, I don't know. I'm pretty sure Cage was interested, at least. I think Cage is one of these actors who can be quite good within a very limited range, mostly where he's playing either very flat and deadpan and emotionless, or else consciously over-the-top. When he's asked to act outside of those parameters it can be disastrous. I do have a real soft spot for the unbelievably funny awfulness of the Wicker Man remake, though.
I think the Oscars have some arcane rule about songs being ineligible if they're only played over the end credits rather than during the movie, or something like that. I don't know, the Oscars seem very silly to me.
Oh, the Oscars are silly all right. I just thought this snub was particularly perverse.
Anyway, I can't help but wonder what Rourke is going to do as a follow-up to The Wrestler. He's mismanaged his career so badly, even recently (I'm not a big fan of Death Proof, and the one thing I really love about that film is Kurt Russell, but Rourke was crazy to turn that down), and The Wrestler is more than a career performance: it is the reason he was put on this planet. Where does he go now? Maybe listen a little more carefully the next time Tarantino offers him a role? Or does he simply begin to care more, which I suspect was a big part of the problem, at least over the last decade or so.
I just stole a line from my last comment and added it to the body of the post. It's brilliance was too staggering for it not to be shared with people who don't read blog comments.
Very Nice.
I'm happy to hear you bring up the song and how it extends the movie into the credits. I can't believe it, sometimes, the way people shoot out of a theater. (Most of the time I think you're missing out on some of the movie if you leave during the credits, but that's for a nother topic.)
I really like what you said here:
I also loved the scene where the Ram, at his weekday job at a grocery store, is first made to work behind the store's deli counter. When have you ever seen such a job presented in a film where the character doing the job actually enjoys it? Where it's been presented as anything but a soul-crushing endeavor fit only for those not fortunate enough to live in a city?
A lot of critics - with both positive and negative reactions to the film - seem to talk about the slog of the miserable existence that Ram has to go through. And while, yes, he has a tough life, I don't see The Wrestler as a film about a miserable man. That deli scene is a moment showing Ram rising above the bad and making a good out of it, making the customers smile and making himself smile. I loved it. Ram doesn't wallow in the mistakes he made. I love when he's sleeping in his van - after a rough night of being locked out of his trailer - and the kids wake him up and he barrels out and plays with them.
And the scenes between the wrestlers backstage are just great. Probably my favorite moments in the film are these moments. I love the comradarie and respect we see between them. These type of men have been stereotyped so much in cinema and pop culture that it's great to finally see them as real people. I kinda wanted to hang out with them. As you said about the deli counter, when was the last time we saw a sub-group of people like this portrayed in such a light? Loved it.
Anyway. Yeah, The Wrestler is definitely tragic and sad in moments, but I think it's also quietly hopeful. The more I think about this movie, the more I really, really like it.
And the scenes between the wrestlers backstage are just great. Probably my favorite moments in the film are these moments. I love the comradarie and respect we see between them. These type of men have been stereotyped so much in cinema and pop culture that it's great to finally see them as real people. I kinda wanted to hang out with them. As you said about the deli counter, when was the last time we saw a sub-group of people like this portrayed in such a light? Loved it.
Yep. With the exception of the grocery store manager, there are no "joke" characters in this film. No one is set up just to be knocked down (again, manager excepted, and he should be excepted from the rest of my praise that follows -- hey, the movie ain't perfect). You don't get the sense that Aronofsky or Siegel thought, "Any movie about a wrestler is going to have to have THIS type of guy": the wrestler the Ram hates, or the crooked agent, or the promoter out to exploit the wrestlers. The movie certainly traffics in cliches from time-to-time, but cliches can actually work if the characters, and the actors playing them, are able to sell them a hundred per cent, and that's one of the things that makes The Wrestler sale.
By the way, I read your review today (well done, by the way) and somehow I had completely forgotten about the Passion of the Christ conversation. And I'm kind of glad too, because I didn't much care for that moment. Not a big deal, but they could have easily lost it.
Oh, and I also loved when Rourke jumps out of his van to play with the kids. He's so exhausted, but he knows the kids just want to have fun with him. And I love the sound effects he makes. Great moment.
"Sail", that is to say.
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