the wrestler, brilliance, and humanity.

a brilliant film. a paragon of storytelling. a work of art.

the film is full of humanity. and that condition is its showcase as well. mickey rourke creates a character of careful grandeur (randy 'the ram'), whose depths are slowly glinted at through darren aronofsky's subtle storytelling. randy's redemptive road begins with light-heartedness, despite an obvious sense of despair about life's unfolding. as the film progresses, randy's attempts at love and reconciliation are sabotaged by his failings in the aspects of life that compose the 'real world'. despite his health, he recedes into his alter-ego as a wrestler, 'the ram'; though he is old, in the ring his fans, 'family', never make him feel out-of-date or invalidated. rather, it is only in that persona that he realises freedom. the oppressiveness of reality is a theme mirrored in marisa tomei's well-crafted character, who herself has two personae (cassidy/pam), though she chooses the responsibilites of the 'real world' and gives up her life as a stripper, where she feels invalidated and out-of-date.

an excellent device used by aronofsky was to film rourke from behind, as he walks. this is done a few times, in different circumstances, and gives the effect of anticipation, as we cannot see his face, and we can only hear the roar of the crowd who are themselves anticipating him. the genius of this device is that aronofsky used it in mundane situations as well, which served to juxtapose 'the ram's glamourous life (as he walks onto the stage) with randy's mundane one (as he walks from the kitchen to the deli counter).

the film was entirely emotional, and rourke was spectucualar, and human. nothing was more poignant than the last scene, in which so much was conveyed by randy's decision to fight, pam's decision to leave, and aronofsky's decision to leave the audience in wonder.