atencio:

I had the pleasure of seeing The Wrestler the night before last (thanks again, Ned). I enjoyed the movie, and of course by now you’ve probably read enough glowing reviews to consider that a foregone conclusion. But more than that, I found the simplicity of the film fascinating. It’s probably the closest thing to a documentary I’ve ever seen in a narrative film, the character Randy “The Ram” Robinson, played by Mickey Rourke, is fully realized on screen, and presented in a remarkably naked, unflinching way. I left the theater wondering where Randy ended and Mickey begins, and it’s probably for the best that I never know. It also puzzled me, as it felt like such a change in course for the director, Darren Aronofsky (not an unwelcome change, but a change nontheless). This interview, however, helped shed some light on the movie, and the filmmaker behind it, which in turn helped me process the movie a little bit more.

I remember the first time I ever saw Aronofsky, profiled in a television piece for either 20/20 or 60 Minutes. I was in high school at the time. The interesting thing about the profile was that it was made during production on his debut feature, Pi, as part of a study of three filmmakers heading to Sundance with their debut films, hoping to make a splash (another subject of the same program was a then unknown Vin Diesel…seriously). At the time, it filled me with hope to see an interview with someone who I so identified with. Young, idealistic, scraping together any money he could find in order to pursue his passion, but also with a maturity and a wisdom that made him seem like he had been making movies for 50 years. Now, older and slightly more jaded, I have to realize that some significant PR muscle must have been on tap for him to be selected for the television piece in the first place, but still, the point remains the same.

I didn’t so much watch Pi that year as I voraciously devoured it, intruiged by the far-out plot and heavily stylized look. I eagerly awaited his sophomore effort, and was blown away by the raw emotional power of Requiem for a Dream. But then, six years passed by without another film. When I finally saw The Fountain, it was a disapointment. While gorgeous visually and technically stunning, I differed from many of my friends in that I was actually underwhelmed by the scope of the movie. Give this guy a big budget, I had always thought, and he’ll blow them all away. But The Fountain felt wandering, trapped in a heady, inscrutable space, as though I was watching a half-finished thought still gestating in Aronofsky’s brain.

So walking into the theatre Tuesday night, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Would it be a return to the naked emotion of Requiem? The raw edge of Pi? Or would it be another Fountain, grand and beautiful, but also meandering and muddled? The answer, ultimately, was that is was all three. At it’s core, The Wrestler is a tender, almost loving picture of a man broken by his own demons and the profession that exploits them so ruthlessly. A raw, powerful picture, it owes much to the rough, handheld films of 1920s Italy and the nuanced, gritty character pieces of the 1970s, but it also surpasses them both. It has a style in it’s absense of style, but it is nonetheless beautiful to look at, with generally excellent camera work.

The film is an achievement for Aronofsky, and it has reinvigorated me to see where he goes from here. I highly reccomend it.