The Wrestler: A Movie that Defies the Standard

Written by Jesse Hayter

If you haven't already seen Darren Aronofsky's new movie "The Wrestler", then you're missing out on a major event in cinematic history.  The movie, starring Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, and Evan Rachel Wood, is the tale of a wrestler who was big in the eighties and now lives a dreary, solitary life twenty years later.

The movie, with only a budget of 6 million, was shot primarily in New Jersey and captures the depressing life of a man who knows only wrestling.  We see Rourke playing a man filled with regret and longing, having never made his life outside the ring anything special.  Rourke is essentially playing himself and this is why this is such a quintessential performance.  Rourke has transcended the barrier between fiction and reality by playing Randy "The Ram" Robinson.  He manages to encapsulate everything about the character and portray it as if the movie were a documentary following Mickey around.

The story coupled with Maryse Alberti's cinematography, camerawork that knows when to stay back and when to get in close, enmeshed with the superb acting from every single member of the cast make this movie an unforgettable experience.  Go see it.