The Wrestler – Movie review

I was browsing over IMBD database and had a look at this movie. In the interviews with the actors which airs at set pix channel, I saw Mickey Rourke having conversation with the host of  Inside the Actors Studio (James Lipton). The James Lipton talked about Mickey’s life and this movie, well the whole interview was good and it did bring an insight about the Mickey’s life and personality but this movie was  the main drawing point. It is directed by the acclaimed director of Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky which got nominated for five Oscars. (He also directed Requiem for a Dream).

Therefore I  decided to watch it. The movie basically revolves around Mickey Rourke as a wrestler past his prime in 1980s  living his life presently.

He has a strained relationship with his daughter (Evan Rachel Wood)  and pretty much is up with  some specified wrestler friends for company. He befriends a stripper,Cassidy ( also past her prime) played by Marisa Tomei. She has a son but wishes to not talk about it.

The movie was  intense just like all the other movies of Darren Aronofsky. The camera work was also good. When the movie starts you are rarely able to see the actors face for like 4 mins. All the shots are from back of his head.  I think those who have seen Requiem for a Dream would be able to see relation in the intensity of the camera work. The movie depicts the Randy (Mickey) taking steroids before fights which leads him to have a heart attack. The doctors say that he cannot fight anymore. He quits fighting only to return later as one fan recognized him serving at a food joint.

During the last scene,  Cassidy approaches him not to fight as she had shrugged him away earlier, when Randy “The Ram” Robinson (Mickey’s character) approaches with a proposal. She asks him not fight as his heart condition will deteriorate and he will die. She says that she is here for him. He goes ahead with his fight saying that the fans are his real family and this is all he has got, they listen to him. That he is heard somewhere.

While fighting, Randy’s heart starts to give way. The movie ends when Randy begins his signature finishing move, a diving head butt called “The Ram Jam”. He climbs the top rope and stands up. In tears, he salutes the crowd and leaps as the screen abruptly cuts to black and the movie ends.

It is a good movie but those with a stomach to watch intense stuff should have a go, for others it will be a tough ride. As far I go, well I find intense movie better and more real in addressing human relationships. So my advice would be one should give it a shot, it is a very good movie.

Your Children — Khalil Gibran

This poem is another proof of the brilliance of khalil Gibran, out of many other  poems of his, this I find very enchanting. Those parents who believe and consider children to “oblige” to their demands, considering themselves as gods (in short fueling their egos). I think it is a good answer.

For those about to be parents, it is a cautionary note, not to fool themselves into believing that they hold any command over anyone. For circle of life has power beyond few immediate living beings.

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you.
And though they are with you, they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
Which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite.
And He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hands be for happiness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
So He loves the bow that is stable.

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