Last updated
Mar 11 2010

News & Views Discussion Forum News Archive Announcements All About Us Email Dom Write 4 DVDfever Competitions Music Charts Chart Archive Cinema Releases Cinema Reviews Press Releases TV Issues R2 DVD Reviews Blu-ray Reviews HD-DVD Reviews R1 DVD Reviews R3-6 DVD Reviews DVD List CD Reviews PS2 Reviews PSP Reviews Xbox Reviews Xbox 360 Reviews Gamecube Revs GBA Reviews PC Reviews Hardware Revs Concert Reviews Video Reviews Comedy Reviews Book Reviews Screenplay Reviews Movie Downloads Interviews TV Shows PSX Reviews N64 Reviews Dreamcast Revs Laserdisc Revs Short Stories DVDs In Brief Right To Reply Why Widescreen? DVD Links Music Links WS Video List WS PAL LD List Me and my Aortic Valve!

Blu-ray:
DVD:

Cert:

Running time: 110 minutes

Year: 2008

Released: June 2009

Region(s): 2, PAL

Chapters: 12 plus extras

Picture: 1080p High Definition

Sound: 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio Lossless

Languages: English

Subtitles: English

Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Super 16)

16:9-Enhanced: Yes

Macrovision: Yes

Disc Format: BD50

Price: £24.99 (Blu-ray); £19.99 (DVD)

Extras: "In The Ring" feature, Interview with Mickey Rourke, Trailer

Vote and comment on this film:

View Comments

---

Director:

Darren Aronofsky (Fortune Cookie, The Fountain, Pi, Protozoa, Requiem for a Dream, Supermarket Sweep, The Wrestler)

Producers:

Darren Aronofsky and Scott Franklin

Screenplay:

Robert D. Siegel

Original Score :

Clint Mansell

Cast :

Randy 'The Ram' Robinson: Mickey Rourke
Cassidy: Marisa Tomei
Stephanie: Evan Rachel Wood
Lenny: Mark Margolis
Wayne: Todd Barry
Nick Volpe: Wass Stevens
Scott Brumberg: Judah Friedlander
The Ayatollah: Ernest Miller
Necro Butcher: Dylan Keith Summers
Tommy Rotten: Tommy Farra
Lex Lethal: Mike Miller

From out of nowhere, Mickey Rourke has made a slow comeback over the last few years, but he's at his best in a long time with The Wrestler. As we join Randy 'The Ram' Robinson (Rourke), it's 20 years on from his glory days and we see the man, himself, making a comeback for the fans. He knows his best days are behind him, but he can still bring in the crowds, and that's all that's important to him. However, his personal life's turned to crap and he's living out of a trailer. All he's got to look forward to is just thinking about old times and a potential rematch with one of his biggest opponents ever Inbetween we see him eeking out a meagre living doing basic manual labour, moving boxes about, putting rubbish food into plastic containers at a deli counter. We also see him getting hooked on prescription medicines that cost a fortune under the counter, as well as steroids. Vanity insists that he gets his hair bleached and goes on a sunbed. Reality kicks in when he has to sport a hearing aid. Thirty mins in, he's covered in blood throughout the course of a fight, and it all looks incredibly gross! Okay, so I know this film will do things for effect, and that it's showing what goes on at hardcore wrestling matches, but because there's bits of glass and barbed wire ripping the Ram's flesh apart, it has a fantastic level of realism. He clearly doesn't feel good about having to put himself through this hell in order to make a buck. As such, he ends up in hospital to have a heart bypass and is told his heart is not in great shape and if he continues to wrestle, then it'll kill him. Hence, it's time to reattach family ties with his daughter, Stephanie (Evan Rachel Wood), which have long-since been broken.

Mickey Rourke is a strange-looking creature these days after butchering his face with plastic surgery, but at least here it can be used to good effect as a man beaten up by both life and his job. Marisa Tomei, as Randy's friend, looks fantastic in the buff as she gives lapdances. She 44 and that rhymes with "Phwoar" (bit cheesy, I know but it's true!). However, her character, Cassidy, is also feeling her age as it's the younger girls who get the most clients while she's feeling similarly over the hill in a competitive world that thrives on youth. Evan Rachel Wood is also worth a watch here, but without giving away the plot, she wasn't in it as much as I expected. All those involved with this film were clearly dedicated as it had a tight shoot of 35 days and a very low budget of around $5-7m. As such, Rourke and Bruce Springsteen, who provided the title track for the movie, reportedly worked for free, and W.Axl Rose also donated the use of Guns N Roses' Sweet Child of Mine for no charge. Overall, The Wrestler has a great low-key style which does away with incidental music and is all the better for it as we follow Randy's story. It's also the kind of film that could've been turned into an unnecessary, self-indulgent 3hr director's cut but Darren Aronofsky has fashioned a great drama that's neatly told within 105 mins before the end credits kick in. That said, I don't think it's a BAFTA-winning performance from Rourke, but then I think that was just a token gesture for the fact he missed out with Angel Heart. That said, Rourke certainly turns in a fantastic performance and there's a moment involving a razor blade which I won't spoil here, but was done for real.

Mostly shot on hand-held camera, that does give a certain feel to the film that works well, but the print doesn't feel Blu-ray-sharp as a result of both that and the grainy effect applied, although it's still good. The film is presented in a 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen frame. For the record, I'm watching on a Panasonic 37" Plasma screen via a Samsung BD-P1500 Blu-ray player. The sound is in DTS 5.1 and is fantastic for the wrestling scenes and everything you'd be looking for aurally, as are the nightclub scenes for Cassidy's job, while the rest are mostly dialogue-driven with speech coming through without a hitch. The extras are as follows: In The Ring (42:42): A long feature that covers how the 35-day filming process went, where they filmed and also contains chat from key cast and crew members, including the fact the film wasn't storyboarded so they just set up scenes and let them roll however they turned out, which allowed for some additional creative freedom and helps tell a sort-of documentary style about it. A major problem with this feature is that it isn't chaptered - especially since it's divided up into topics, so if you stop watching part-way through and want to go back to a certain point, it requires fast-forwarding :( Interview with Mickey Rourke (15:45): Done in a Q&A style with questions posed in text onscreen before Mickey appears to give the answer. Trailer (2:27): Presented in anamorphic 2.35:1. However, at the start of the disc comes one thing I abhor - trailers. These should should be part of the extras and NOT shoved before the main menu. We are not in the age of rental video. Hence, the titles featured won't get mentioned here, even though one was a film that looks interesting. Another was an advert for a TV channel(!) The menu mixes sound and images from the film in a neat way, there are English subtitles but the Chaptering is appalling with just 12 over the near-two hours.

FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS
OVERALL

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2009.

DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.

PC games reviewed by the editor are on: