The Wrestler Blu-ray/DVD

Studio: Fox

May 01, 2009 Web Exclusive By Nick Hyman

One of the more notable releases of 2008 was Darren Aronofsky’s fourth and most grounded film, The Wrestler. The marriage of character and actor has rarely been better suited than in Mickey Rourke, who here plays a formerly great wrestler whose fallen on hard times. In addition to living in a trailer park, shooting steroids, and being a has-been, his character Randy “The Ram” Robinson grapples with guilt over his abandoned daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) and shows affection for a stripper with a heart of gold played by Marisa Tomei (who’s much better than the material). The Wrestler is notable for Rourke and Tomei, who give great performances, but the movie falls short of transcending the all too familiar dramatic scenarios despite its great ending.

The DVD is a missed opportunity and features only an above-average making-of, a real wrestler roundtable (featuring They Live’s “Rowdy” Roddy Piper!), and the Bruce Springsteen music video for the title song. A commentary with Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain) talking about his stylistic restraint and Rourke talking about his comeback would have been welcome, but is nowhere to be found. (www.foxbluray.com)

Author rating: 6/10

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Average reader rating: 9/10

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Frostified
May 2nd 2009
1:31am

I still haven’t seen this movie. I’ve really admired Aronofsky’s previous films though.

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September 23rd 2010
4:01am

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