I was excited about a movie called The Wrestler by an advance review by my favorite sports columnist. He said many great and accurate things that I won't spend too much time repeating. I agree that this is a role no one else could have pulled off this well. Nic Cage, Kurt Russell, or Russell Crowe couldn't have evoked the same sympathy that Mickey Rourke does as Randy "The Ram" Robinson. Like Denzel in Malcolm X or Tom Hanks in Big, Cast Away, or Forrest Gump, no one else could have pulled this off this successfully. Rourke truly OWNS Randy "The Ram" Robinson. Marissa Tomei is also well suited for her role. She plays Cassidy, an aging stripper who, true to stereotype, has an out-of-wedlock son that has likely prevented her from finding a long-lasting husband in earlier life. Offstage, she's Pam, the still very attractive woman who has made multiple bad choices that led her to this point in life. As art imitates life, both Tomei and Rourke have seemingly fallen out of Hollywood favor. Rourke now takes smaller, bit-part (Sin City and Man on Fire) roles; Tomei gets undressed (Before the Devil Knows You're Dead) to stay relevant. Somewhat appropriately, the actors' successes in this movie may represent the best in American culture - eternal hope and additional chances. Both of the film's characters seem to espouse these American standards.
Simultaneously, the movie shows the worst, and maybe realest, sides of American culture - the cults of excess and fame. Despite the fact that the Ram is totally physically worn down (as shown in the film), he continues his pursuit of a comeback in professional wrestling. His drive pushes him to abuse an already drug-abused body. After a hospital stay for heart trouble, Randy engages in multiple risky behaviors. He also (inevitably) comes back to wrestling much too soon after this major medical issue. This push to keep wrestling is not solely for monetary reasons; it's to recapture the fame he once had in the 80s. About halfway through the movie, Randy dances to in a bar to Ratt's rocker "Round and Round"; subsequently, he praises Guns n' Roses and calls Kurt Cobain a derragatory name. This illustrates his and Cassidy's nostalgia for a time when they were relevant and in their prime. Like the old high school quarterback who never amounted to much else, time passes all of us by.
"You think that I am this stripper, and I'm not. I'm a mom," says Cassidy, while struggling against being versus seeming. The characters in this movie are wrestling with what they are versus what they seem. Randy is a has-been, and Cassidy is a stripper. Randy wants to the elusive second chance at glory that time seems to have damned him from ever getting; Cassidy wants the normal life that being a single mom with a night job percludes. The heart cannot help extending affection to the two characters because we have seen them countless times in a multitude of varieties in our own lives - the clerk at the favorite convience store that has another job, also as a clerk at another convenience store; the bar tender at the preferred watering hole, who despite a master's degree, cannot find happiness in the 9-5 world; and the girl at the drive-thru, there after three years, forging that same smile and "Have a nice day!"
Perhaps this movie works so well because it effectively meshes America's best and worst together, as they are already - inextricably intertwined.
Simultaneously, the movie shows the worst, and maybe realest, sides of American culture - the cults of excess and fame. Despite the fact that the Ram is totally physically worn down (as shown in the film), he continues his pursuit of a comeback in professional wrestling. His drive pushes him to abuse an already drug-abused body. After a hospital stay for heart trouble, Randy engages in multiple risky behaviors. He also (inevitably) comes back to wrestling much too soon after this major medical issue. This push to keep wrestling is not solely for monetary reasons; it's to recapture the fame he once had in the 80s. About halfway through the movie, Randy dances to in a bar to Ratt's rocker "Round and Round"; subsequently, he praises Guns n' Roses and calls Kurt Cobain a derragatory name. This illustrates his and Cassidy's nostalgia for a time when they were relevant and in their prime. Like the old high school quarterback who never amounted to much else, time passes all of us by.
"You think that I am this stripper, and I'm not. I'm a mom," says Cassidy, while struggling against being versus seeming. The characters in this movie are wrestling with what they are versus what they seem. Randy is a has-been, and Cassidy is a stripper. Randy wants to the elusive second chance at glory that time seems to have damned him from ever getting; Cassidy wants the normal life that being a single mom with a night job percludes. The heart cannot help extending affection to the two characters because we have seen them countless times in a multitude of varieties in our own lives - the clerk at the favorite convience store that has another job, also as a clerk at another convenience store; the bar tender at the preferred watering hole, who despite a master's degree, cannot find happiness in the 9-5 world; and the girl at the drive-thru, there after three years, forging that same smile and "Have a nice day!"
Perhaps this movie works so well because it effectively meshes America's best and worst together, as they are already - inextricably intertwined.
Bill Simmons link: http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?section=magazine&id=3773747
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