Survival of the fleetest - An aging wrestler comes to terms with his life in this staid fantastic drama
A couple of minutes into the movie, we see a sweaty, muscled man with long hair hunched on a chair in a desolated
room, taping his wounds, catching his breath and massaging his aches and
swollen body. He looks battered and battle weary. This is just a couple of
seconds after we are given a glimpse of sunnier days about this well-renowned athlete
winning accolades, garnering adulation and generally glowing in the limelight.
It is a masterful apposition of past and present and sets the stage for us investing
in this character.
Randy "The
Ram" Robinson (Mickey Rourke) is a wrestler. Now well past his prime, in
order to stay afloat he wrestles in small seemingly meaningless competitions
and works in a remote NJ grocery store where
the puny store manager, half the wrestler’s size, aims sarcastic darts at him
all the time. It is the sorry state of affairs for a man who climbs a height
for his finishing move in the ring but muddles in the abyss for much of his daily
social life. He finds solace in the dances and company of stripper Cassidy( a
mostly nude but capable Marisa Tomei) and hopes to draw his estranged daughter
(Evan Rachel Wood) in his ring of reconciliation. Detachment, despair, hope and
grappling with reality compete in the survivor series to use a wrestling
metaphor.
Director Darren
Aronofsky(Pi, Requiem for a Dream and The Fountain) infuses real grit in what
could have turned out to be bland linear drama. The show of broken relationships
and aloofness is subtle and realistic with some stunning rugged close-ups. But the
movie is especially terrific in the pre-grappling and bout scenes where we are first
made a part of the back room discussion among the wrestlers about how they will
proceed knocking each other and then see the subsequent brawl. It just changes
your perspective about entertainment wrestling being “that big fake thing”
Almost
paralleling his real life, Rourke is terrific with those expressive eyes and
unspoken lament. His interactions with younger wrestlers say much about him
than anything else. In an early scene, Cassidy compares him to Christ that he
takes so much punishment and Randy casually admires that he must have been a
tough dude. In the same way, Rourke greatly invokes in his performance, the
sting he feels when ignored by the real world from his daughter to the kid next
door in a way reflecting the wounds they inflict on him but he still stands up
on his feet everywhere and especially in the ring taking the form of a crucified
man, he jumps, arms wide open, locks spiriting, from the top rung to vanquish his fallen opponent.
The character knows he is fading but clings on to that last inkling of fame
that has kept him alive all these years and Rourke “pins” this down for a
winner.
Rating : 4/5
