Check out this video about two wrestlers – one blind and one with no legs – defying all types of odds. A great story about these two kids, and the sport of amateur wrestling.
Posts Tagged ‘Wrestler’
Great Video
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009Movie Review: The Wrestler
Tuesday, May 19th, 2009
(Theatrical release poster)
OK, maybe I’m a little behind the curve here, but since my daughter came along I don’t get out much. Anyway, I just saw The Wrestler on DVD this weekend. Definitely one of those movies you either love or hate. My take — probably one of the best movies I’ve seen in the last three or four years. Forget about the fact that I was, admittedly, a huge pro-wrestling fan growing up. Forget about the fact that the acting was great (I don’t think they could have pulled this movie off without Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei). What I really like about the movie was that they went after and nailed a theme that most popular films don’t go near: broken people and relationships tend to stay broken. And, more than that, just recognizing that you are broken, and even knowing why, is usually not enough to fix the problem. Unfortunately, fixing yourself and damaged relationships is much harder than that. It requires you to actually change. Change the way you think about things, change the way you react to things, change your attitude, etc. This is what Rourke’s character couldn’t do, and Tomei’s character only decided to do too late. I suppose it’s difficult to make a successful movie and focus on this type of theme because, unless you have very likable characters, it’s hard to watch people screw up for 90-some-odd minutes. But that’s exactly what Darren Aronosfsky pulled off with this movie. While hopelessly flawed, both Rourke’s and Tomei’s characters were also hopelessly likable. You end up wanting them to pull through . . . to change.
Not to ruin it for anyone (if there’s anyone else in the universe who hasn’t seen it already), but both characters fall short. The scenes between Rourke’s character and his estranged daughter are brutal – I’d definitely choose the “staple gun match” over having some of those conversations with my daughter any day. But for a while it looked like “the Ram” may untangle the mess he made as a father. In the end, no such luck. Like they say, old habits are hard to break. Same with Tomei’s character who ended up coming around, but just did it too late.
Although pretty dark, this film had a great message: If you know you’re broken and want to change, get off your ass and do it. And don’t wait too long to get started, because the people you care about may not.
This one was worth the price of admission.