"PAIN DON'T HURT"

The Wrestler - My Grade: B+

I saw The Wrestler while on my mini-vacay the other day and found it to be a very solid American melodrama. Was it one of the Best Movies of 2008? Well, I'm not going to be revising my previous list, but it was nice to see a good, old-fashioned, gritty 70's style character study done well. The movie is also a departure for director Darren Aronofsky, who in the past has specialized in stylish, grandiose, Big Theme pictures (see Requiem for a Dream and The Fountain).

Mickey Rourke is sensational in his latest "comeback" role ("don't call it a comeback/he's been here for years") as washed-up wrestler Randy "The Ram", twenty years past his prime, but still going out every weekend, putting on the tights and giving his loyal fans the best show he can. The best parts of The Wrestler involve the little behind-the-scene details of what wrestlers do to prepare for their "bouts". Yes, wrestling is fake and not a real sport. However, that doesn't mean that these guys aren't good athletes and charismatic entertainers. Although a lot of the more sensational aspects of a match are worked out beforehand by the combatants, that should in no way give one the impression that wrestling doesn't tear up these guys bodies. For the squeamish, there's some particularly nasty business involving a staple gun that will probably have you closing your eyes until the scene is over.

Other good scenes involve the halting, insecure and probably unhealthy relationship between The Ram and a stripper named "Cassidy" played with a winking confidence by Hollywood's go-to-gal for over-30 nudity, Marisa Tomei. As Aronofsky has pointed out in interviews, there is a nice parallel story here between two people who depend on their bodies to make a living and how each one has to deal in their own way with the realization that they won't be able to depend on those bodies much longer. Still, it left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth to see yet ANOTHER big screen story involving a tough talking but kind-hearted stripper and it bothers even more that such a role earns yet another Oscar nomination. Although the frequently underrated Tomei does a great job, it is impossible to ignore the cliche. (If she wanted to win another Oscar to go along with her victory for My Cousin Vinny, she should have lobbied the producers to rewrite the movie back into the 60's and turn her character into a Holocaust survivor. But I digress.)

A less successful plotline in The Wrestler involves Randy's attempt to reach out to his estranged daughter Stephanie played by Evan Rachel Wood. While Wood is usually one of Hollywood's more interesting and talented young actors, here her role is underwritten and her acting choices basically amount to either shrieking hostility or tearful diffidence. I never really bought into this storyline.

The Wrestler is worth a trip to the theater, especially for a matinee. My friends have teased me because I have not been a Rourke fan over the years and here, I was actually blown away by his performance. Hey, I never found the guy sexy and if you spend fifteen years making uninteresting movies and giving largely uninteresting performances, then yes, I'd say The Wrestler qualifies as a bit of a revelation (even if the part was pretty much written expressly for him). Randy The Ram never feels like a performance and he always feels like a real person. He is charming, deeply flawed, relatable. Unlike the performances turned in by his fellow Best Actor nominees, Rourke's work is more than a highly skilled impersonation (see Langella, Frank or Penn, Sean) or a creation of terrific makeup and special effects (see Pitt, Brad) and his character is more open and less frigid than Richard Jenkins' repressed literature professor in The Visitor. But will Rourke win? My gut feeling is probably not--Sean Penn's performance is showier and he's playing a completely different type of character than anything we've seen him do before. Besides, Penn is universally admired among his fellow actors in a way that Rourke could never hope to be. That should not in any way diminish appreciation for The Wrestler, rather it is a statement of, as Walter Cronkite might say, just the "way it is."

THE WRESTLER stars Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood. It is Rated 'R' for wrestling violence, adult themes, profanity, brief nudity and sexuality. Written by Rober Siegel. Directed by Darren Aronofsky.

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Now Comes The Hard Part...

President Obama and his staff successfully shepherded the stimulus package to pass through the Senate last week, but as painful as that process was and as many concessions as they had to make (a lot of money earmarked for "green" job initiatives got gutted in favor of Republican sponsored tax cuts), it was a major victory to get the bill passed. Now it will be interesting to see what happens when the economy continues its inexorable decline into Depression over the next nine months--how will Obama be able to convince a nervous and cynical populace that better times may be right around the corner when another five million people are probably about to lose their jobs? Can people be convinced that putting money in the coffers of the banks and the moneylenders as opposed to the pockets of working middle class Americans is just what the economy needs right now?

At least the Republicans look more pathetic and out of touch than ever...when only one party in a two-party country seems to have a grasp of the problem at hand, that buys time to make mistakes and fashion the message. The next nine months may tell us a lot about just what kind of presidency the Obama administration is going to be.

Peace.