The Wrestler
The Skinny: Mickey Rourke plays a has-been professional wrestler who tries to save the shambles of his career and personal life.
The Good: I haven’t seen many of Rourke’s films, but from what I read, this movie is more or less a testament of his life – that both he and the character he plays were once talented artists with promising careers, but pretty much lost everything. Rourke definitely sells the character and makes it believable, and I found myself really wrapped up in watching him struggle to stay relevant in the ring while trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter. There are also some really cringe-inducing wrestling scene that kind of makes me appreciate the “sport” of professional wrestling. (Note: I said “kind of.”)
The Bad: Speaking of daughters, Evan Rachel Wood delivers every line with the furrowed brow and “I’m almost crying” intensity of something you’d see on the Lifetime channel. She really started to bug me by the end, and as much as I rooted for her and Rourke to patch things up, I really just wanted her to go away.
The Ugly: Marisa Tomei shows up in this movie with another role to show off her acting “assets.” Yep, I imagine she had another heart-to-heart with her agent over this character:
Marisa: I’m looking for a role I can sink my teeth into. Something timeless, transcending the fibers of space and time and showing my depth, breadth and dimension as a woman, mother and actress.
Agent: I’ve got a movie here where you’ll take off your clothes a lot, but you won’t have to get naked with Phillip Seymour Hoffman.
Marisa: I’ll take it!
The Bottom Line: I think Rourke’s performance is pretty stellar, but a lot of relationship struggles are out of the movie cliche handbook, and not complimented well by so-so acting from the female leads.
Score: 
Technorati tags: The Wrestler, movie reviews
This entry was posted on Monday, June 22nd, 2009 at 7:42 pm and is filed under Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.