The Wrestler

So, I'm pretty far behind and have about a half dozen of my shitty movie reviews to write so that no one reads them, but the goal of this weekend is to catch up. So now that my reader count is up to 3, I apologize for forcing you the three of you to reading several reviews in the near future. That being said, just because I said that I'll be writing these this weekend, it won't actually come true. Ask my boss at work, I'm the king of not meeting deadlines.

I saw this movie on New Years Day in theaters (shocking I know). There was a lot of hype for this film and I figured this was worth going to the theater to get the full experience. As a side note, I also go to theaters to get the full experience for bad movies I just really want to see, aka 'The Unborn' which I am leaving for in approximately 40 min. It was the first time that I went to the Georgetown theater and I kind of liked it. Parking is kind of a pain, but when is parking not a pain anyways. The theater was small, but I had a huge Cherry Coke and candy, so I was all set.

The movie started off weird at first. For about the first 10 minutes, you never saw Mickey Rourke's face. I'm not sure as to why the director filmed it this way, but the camera 'shadowed' him from behind. It turns out that several parts of the movie were filmed this way. not a smooth camera flow either, almost as if someone was walking behind him. So although I thought this quite odd at first, I turned out to really enjoy it. The cinematography style allowed the viewer to see the world through his eyes almost, to feel what he felt and his surroundings, and most of all, to help you relate to the character.

There are rumors that Mickey Rourke is a lock for Best Actor. First of all, what a great story for him. Getting himself back into the ring and possibly living up to the potential he had. I'm hoping this movie will be a springboard for his career in the next couple years. The film itself is set around the story of an over-the-hill wrestler that was once the king of the ring. 20 years later, his popularity is still there, but not only is he not at the same level, but it seemed the sport wasn't either. It was interesting to see these wrestling matches take place in high school gymnasiums and at community centers. There were several insights into what actually is discussed behind the scenes to these wrestling matches and I thought it was all extremely interesting. I never really got into wrestling as a kid, so I can't relate to this film as much as let's say Robby or Jon, but I enjoyed the story just as much.

So where was I, I think was trying to point out that although this movie is focused on a wrestler, that's only the plot. The actual movie is about a guy that is down and out, that has very little in his life, trying to make some sort of semblance of a life. He was a bad father that wanted to re-build a relationship with his daughter. A daughter that hated a father for never being around. A man who's only love interest is a stripper that he throws $20s at just to talk to him. The director does an incredible job making the viewer feel for Mickey Rourke's character, especially with his side job. I won't go into more specifics, but if you only see 5 movies from 2008, even though this was released so late, I think this has to be one of them.

I give the movie 5 Manatees.