Toronto – Lining up at Ryerson’s auditorium wasn’t very thrilling. Lining up at the auditorium and finding out that the line goes past Gerrard St., bends right around Church (ok, seriously, I’m not making this shit up to fill a pun), and spills onto Gould St. is even more ridiculous. And I was, what, 45 min. early for the show?! What these people (me included) do for their day job is beyond me. That, or Mr. Harper has better address a serious unemployment problem. Addressing unemployment is, philosophically, pretty much what Darren Aronofsky did in this new film. To hell with mind-fucks (Pi and the Fountain) and depressive streaks (Requiem for a Dream). He chose a very simple screenplay to work with and I think focused mainly on the expressions in the actors/actresses.
Randy Robinson is a wrestler in his forties/fifties. If you’ve ever seen the Backyard, you’ll know that whether from physical pounding or mental fatigue of constantly portraying a superhuman, these guys are in terrible shapes in the later years, and Randy the “RAM” isn’t as immune as he would like to be. He got his wake-up call after a particularly bad bout with glass panes, staple guns, chairs and prosthetic leg – his heart broke down. Now tied down to the mundane life that all of us live, Randy’s larger than life personality reflected, and decided to retire, settle down, live it out peacefully. He took to the only refuge he knows, a strip-dancer named Pam (Cassidy when she’s at work). She diverted him over to his estranged daughter, who also turned him down. Lost between these two, Randy began to try and piece together a normal living, while still working hard to win favors of these two women. To put simply, battles were won and lost but in the end, Randy felt so lost and deserted in the real world, yet so loved in the ring, that risking and ending his life by wrestling became his only solution.
Mickey Rourke’s Randy was very amusing. It was always subtle and quietly painful. Not because he cries or lies in the bed heart-broken. But kinda what you’d expect from a guy who always need to act tough’n'rough. Being the superstar wrestler gave Randy so much more pressure, I think Rourke mixed in a large dose of controlled-ego in his character. I guess a Hollywood star would have no problem in that department… Some people shielded their eyes from the violence – boy they didn’t skimp on the blood and backyard wrestling toolbox and it was effective in showing what type of life Randy lead. But I honestly wasn’t expecting a simple plot and character direction from Aronofsky and I guess I’m a bit shocked that he made a jump back from the alternative universe (althogh these days since everyone’s different, no one cares it’s different so maybe that’s why he’s back on Earth). Music from Clint Mansell wasn’t overt, no memorable themes – this was after all a character film, not the ambiance story builder like the Fountain. But it always chimed in right on time – I loved the part when Randy headed towards the deli stand to the background of a roaring crowd.
4/5 for Darren. It was a good movie and it did win Venice Film fest – just don’t go in there thinking that you’ll see Randy transformed into budda and discover a power to convert the whole industry to pacifism.
