Not Coming to a Theater Near You
What do you think she meant when she said “a huge black monster with giant claws”?
What do you think she meant when she said “a huge black monster with giant claws”?
I read somewhere that the power of The Wrestler lies in Mickey Rourke’s wear-ravaged face, but when I left the theater, I found it was the image of his hands that stayed with me most strongly. At times during the movie I found the oft-zoomed-in camera work a bit much, but when the lens closed in on those hands – big, hard-working mitts, often cut up, with dark bruises under the broken nails – they seemed to tell Randy the Ram’s story all on their own. I don’t know how it will stack up against some of the year’s more sweeping, ambitious dramas, but as a straightforward character portrait? I haven’t seen a finer one on the big screen in quite some time.
by Eva Holland | Source: 35mm Print
31 Jan 2009 10:27 PM | Comments (1)
I’m surprised at how little recognition this film has gotten. I know that it has been placed on numerous top ten lists, but it seems to me that it deserves more, somehow. I also felt that while the film functions quite well as a character portrait, it also works as an allegory depicting a messianic figure in a debased setting. Essentially, Roarke’s character sacrifices himself not in order to save his audience, but simply to entertain them. Thus the film is critical of a subculture it nonetheless depicts realistically. This could be seen as an attack on fight cultures in particular or on the basic human urge to witness violence in order to achieve catharsis by proxy. Of course, the allegorical aspect of the film would not work as well if the film didn’t portray its central characters so realistically and in such tight focus.
Jeremiah
13 February 2009
2:21 PM