Review: The Wrestler

Review: The Wrestler

Rating: ***1/2

Nonna's Rating: $$$$

Rotten Tomatoes: 98%

I'm sure you've had the experience. You see a movie, and for a day or so, you can't get it out of your head. The images haunt you. You feel compelled to discuss it with others who've seen it; you feel compelled to recommend it to those who have not. The Wrestler has been such a picture for me -- and I'm still thinking about it after one week. Mickey Rourke's painfully authentic performance, his ability to inhabit the character he portrays, continues to remind me of -- of all things -- the gift of free will. God gave us the gift of choice and, everyday, we make one choice after another.

"The Ram," as Rourke's once-famous character is known, has made those choices, one after another, in his years of taking part in the bizarre ballet of choreographed professional wrestling. He had made those choices in his relationship with his wife and his child. And, yes, in his later years, in the movie, he still can choose one way or the other, but something deeper and more compelling than simple habit steers him toward choices that continue to chip away at his soul. We can pretend he's a "fringe" person, someone who lives outside of whatever "normal" is, but he isn't. He's an Everyman transmogrified by a myriad of addictions, including one to the idea and the glory of what it is to be "The Ram."

This isn't an easy film to watch. The wrestling scenes are brutal and bloody, made doubly horrifying by the obvious good will, affection, and camaraderie the wrestlers show one another in their dressing room. Rourke's performance is the reason to see the movie. His often subtle emotions play across his face, a face hardly recognizable to that of the young man who starred in The Pope of Greenwich Village. Some critics have said that Rourke's performance is not remarkable, that it only mirrors his own life experiences, that it is just Mickey Rourke on the screen.

Well, I say, that's enough for me.

Nonna's Ratings:

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening price
$$$= Worth paying the Matinee price
$$= Worth a rental
$ = Wait for cable
# = Skip it