“The Wrestler”

dir. by Darren Aronofsky

review by Dave V Burgers

I’m not going to jerk myself off in verbosity. I’m not going to impress anyone with my writing ability. I’m not going to turn this into a study of false emotional nuance and romanticism by creating things that don’t actually exist in the movie like a lot of critics do. If that’s what you are looking for go listen to NPR with a red rose sticking out of your ass.

“This is a harrowing tale of…” – umm – this is a harrowing tale of shut the fuck up!

Mary Burgers dragged me out to see this movie. I went to see it to appease her. I have my rare kiss ass moments and this was one of them. I probably thought I was going to get nookie. Instead I got my cat taking a shit on my bed when I got home.

Oh, that’s right….the movie.

I thought “The Wrestler” was going to suck. I was wrong. This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a while. It’s amazing that I’m reviewing the movie even though Mary Burgers de-friended me on facebook in a fit of a “this guy’s a fucking jerk” episode. Am I a nice guy? Not really – fuck you.

Anyway, back to the movie. Rourke plays a past-his-prime pro-wrestler who is down on his luck and living in a trailer park. He faces a crisis when the doctor tells him he has a heart problem and can no longer wrestle. This forces him to face himself instead of continuing to hide behind the veil of glory pro-wrestling has provided. This in turn creates the character arc for emotional and spiritual transformation.

This movie is a character study with heart and soul. The Wrestler builds slowly through the revealing of the characters and the steady pacing of the story.

The subtext is roomy and allows the film to breathe. The characters are developed properly and are revealed at the right pace. Rourke is brilliant; his acting is as natural as I’ve ever seen. All of the other actors are dead-on except for Evan Rachel Wood. Wood goes a bit over the edge with over-acting in a few scenes and is probably the weakest link in the movie – the only weak link. But she does not ruin the movie.

The script is tight and realistic. No bullshit Hollywood lines or catchy phrases.

The story moves along at just the right clip for the story to develop and dramatic tension to build. The cinematography is jerky to give a realistic first-person view of the story. Normally I hate that shit but here it works. The exposition is subtle and naturally placed – no stupid announcements.

30 minutes into the movie it hit me: this movie is great. I don’t mean great like “Lethal Weapon”; I’m talking great like “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” great. Most great movies are funny, sad, and soulful. Most of the greats have all of these qualities: “Rocky”, “Raging Bull”, “Good Fellas”, and most of the Spielberg flicks all share them.

“The Wrestler” is one of those movies.

Oh shit am I losing myself here? Fuck off.

Usually 1 or 2 of the Academy Award nominated movies are great. The other nominated movies no one will give a shit about in 5 years. Do you think anyone will care about The Reader” 10 years from now? If you do, be at 13th and Hasker Tuesday night at 11:30pm. You’ll meet a guy there named Johnny Barbuckle. Give him a 5 dollar bill. You’ll then pass out and wake up wearing a red dress and a powdered wig with a fat, bald guy named Horace standing over you barking, “You’re next on stage baby.” I hope you like cigars.

Anyway, the point is “The Wrestler” is a movie people will remember. I’ve been trying to figure out what actually made this movie great and I think I finally got it. The film makers were able to get out of their own fucking way long enough for the story to tell itself.

5 out of 6 burgers