The Wrestler
by Robbo
Posted on 15 June 2021
Rating -
The Wrestler is a 2008 American sports drama film directed by Darren Aronofsky and written by Robert Siegel. The film stars Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, and Evan Rachel Wood.
Professional wrestler Robin Ramzinski, better known by his ring name Randy “The Ram” Robinson, rose to fame in the 1980s. Now past his prime, Randy wrestles on weekends for independent promotions in New Jersey while working part-time at a supermarket.
As a regular at a strip club, Randy befriends a stripper named Cassidy who, like Randy, is past her younger years for the job. After winning a local match, Randy agrees to a proposed 20th-anniversary rematch with his most notable opponent, “The Ayatollah”, which Randy thinks could bring him back to stardom.
Randy intensifies his training, which includes steroid injections. After wrestling in a hardcore match, Randy suffers a heart attack backstage and undergoes coronary artery bypass surgery. His doctor informs him that he nearly died and has to stop taking steroids. To make things even worse, the doctor warns Randy not to wrestle any more, as his heart can no longer handle the stress brought on by it. Reluctantly, Randy decides to retire and begins working a full-time shift at the supermarket’s deli counter.
At Cassidy’s suggestion, Randy visits his estranged daughter Stephanie, whom he had abandoned when she was a child, but she rebuffs him. While helping Randy buy a gift for Stephanie, Cassidy reveals that she has a son. Randy makes romantic advances toward her, which she rejects on the grounds of her job. Later, Randy gives the gift to his daughter and apologizes for abandoning her. The two bond over a visit to a beach front boardwalk (where he took her as a child) and agree to meet for dinner on the coming Saturday.
Randy goes to Cassidy’s strip club to thank her, but she once more rejects him, resulting in a heated exchange. Upset, Randy goes to see a wrestling match and finds solace in his wrestling friends. While at a bar with them, he gets drunk. Exhausted, he sleeps the entire next day and misses his dinner with Stephanie. He goes to her house to apologize, but she angrily tells him she never wants to see him again.
Feeling he has nothing left, Randy decides to return to wrestling and reschedules the rematch with The Ayatollah. He reconciles with Cassidy, though she begs him not to wrestle because of his heart condition and pleads with him to cancel the match and give the outside world a second chance. However, Randy disregards her advice, explaining to her that he belongs in the ring with his fans and fellow wrestlers who, unlike the rest of society, love and respect him.
The Wrestler is an unrelentingly depressing view of the professional wrestling world, although critics have claimed it was neither realistic nor accurate of the profession for most wrestlers involved in it.
This film explores a really interesting subject of an ageing sportsman who was once famous but is now past his prime and has to carry on working as he can’t afford to retire, yet is desperately clinging onto the past with the hope that somehow he can regain his past glory.
Yes The Wrestler is sad, but there is also subtle humour. Randy is flawed yet likeable and you find yourself really rooting for him. Rourke gives a very good performance and is able to show the vulnerability in the character, in some instances you have genuine pity for him.
The Wrestler is an amazing film, one that I’m sure will become a modern classic.
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