The Wrestler

*spoilers*

my original post, right after seeing it, was as follows:

just shivered at the end of this. i could see why people may not be into the ending but...about 15-20 mins before the end give or take, i think i realized how it would end. and i wondered if it would go there...or if aronofsky would hollywood it out. i thought he would not do the hollywood ending...but it seemed building toward it and i was nervously anticipating (because i knew either way he chose to end it, he would do a great job).

Then you get what he leaves you with...and you know how it ends. Really...it was the only way it could end. I will be the first to admit i'm an aronofsky fanboy...and i guarantee i'm biased...but it was powerful. and after the job him and rourke do of getting the viewer invested in the character of the Ram...leaving you with the ending like he did just hits...

damn...great flick

I have since seen it a second time, and man...Rourke played the role he was meant to play. You can see the struggle his character is facing embodied by Rourke throughout the entire movie. The faces he makes, the tears that are shed, the frustration that he emotes. It truly is an incredible performance. The movie is not about wrestling. It's not about the love story. It's not about his relationship with his daughter. It's not even about wrestling. It's about Randy the Ram's internal struggle. While he's gone from the top of the wrestling entertainment world to a much smaller role...he's now living a rough life...but, still knows he can do what he's always done. As his age and health catch up to him, and he can no longer do what he loves and, really, the only thing he knows, he is faced with the reality that he has nothing else in this world. He desperately tries his best to find things around him, his estranged daughter, the stripper whom he takes a fancy too, and even his supermarket job to help him find some substance to his now wrestling-free life. While he is genuine in his attempts to kindle a relationship, repair a broken father daughter bond, and even to just carry out a normal day-to-day job...he inadvertantly fucks it all up or isn't given the chance to reconcile because of his past. In his mind, there is only one thing that never let him down...his fans. They still cheer, so despite his health, he wants to give them one last show, and being the showman he is he decides to go out in a blaze of bittersweet glory. His character is an extremely relatable character, and i recommend EVERYONE, not just wrestling or aronofsky fans to see this movie about the human struggle to find where they belong in this world.