Review of The Wrestler (2008) by Amjad A — 03 Sep 2011

This so should've won the oscar for best film of 2008. Without a shadow of a doubt, a film with amazing cinematography, amazing dialogue, and amazing acting by Mickey Rourke.. He truly portrayed this character brilliantly.

His performance was provocative, shocking, haunting and mischevious, while maintaining a sensetive side, which throughout the film, makes you feel sorry for him despite all his flaws. Who says a film about wrestling can't be any good? In my opinion, this film personafied what the wrestling business is about at its finest.

Sure, wrestling might be a fake sport, and some suggest that intellectual and intelligent people shouldn't watch wrestling, and I firmly disagree. This film embodies the demons and the troubles of the wrestling business behind the scenes.

.. Full of memorable and emotional moments, including a spectacularly heartfelt perormance from Evan Rachel Woods, The Wrestler is a film which will leave you breathless. An amazing film of epic size. I advice this film highly for anybody who appreciates cinema in general.

Although this film is not considered a 5 star masterpiece, which is why I gave it 4, it is still a film which demands attention. A film with great direction combined with central subtext which is higly insightful and meaningful.

It is almost as if this film somewhat featured a mixed variety of underlyning tones and issues, that unless given the maximum amount of attention are hard to point out.. Is this film really about a troubled and emotional man who keeps making mistakes in life, thus causing his downward relationship with his daughter? Or did this film try to create a social statement or satire, about how society and fame are a deadly combination which affects the human mind in a way most of us find somewhat hard to believe, thus causing Rourke to have mixed feelings of identity crisis? Whatever the logic or motive in creating this film, I think Aronofsky did a marvellous job with it, and without the epic acting skills from Rourke, this film wouldn't have been a huge success, because let's be honest, the screenplay was good, but it wasn't great.

The thing that really pushed the film and made it go was the character development and the in-depth look of the characters. The performances and the monologues between the Father and Daughter were absolutely cinema at its everlasting best.

The acting couldn't of been better, and this movie may not be considered as A knock em down, Tarantino spaghetti western, but it is an exercise in deep and emotional issues, which I may add, have atleast a dozen layers.

.. WATCH IT...