The Wrestler

Another successful Rush attempt, I went to see the much hyped up movie, The Wrestler.
When selecting which films I wanted to see and reading the blurbs about each of the movies on the TIFF08 website,I'd actually passed this one by. I forget exactly what the reason was, but it didn't catch me like some of the other movies did.
Once the festival got started, a buzz about the movie went around and word got out that it had just won the Golden Lion Award from the Venice Film Festival. I thought - hmmmm, there must be something to this movie, and since I'm all about embracing the experience, I decided to see what the big fuss was about.
The movie stars Mickey Rourke as a wrestler (think WWE) near the end of his career. The roller coaster ride he goes through as a former star, coming to grips with his last moments in the ring and his identity beyond. He has limited relationships with people outside of the world of wrestling and they are all strained in some way (especially the one with his daughter). The reason this movie is so good is because of Rourke.
Director Darren Aronofsky showed up (fashionably late, I might add) to introduce his film, but unfortunately didn't stay for a Q&A. I enjoyed his artsy movie, Pi and still need to see Requiem for a Dream. Nothing about this movie struck me as cinematically amazing...as I said before it was all Rourke.
The issues that are examined in this movie are real and very touching. When you love something so much, maybe not even love, but if something defines you, you feel lost without it.
Certain elements of the movie seemed to be skimmed over and I would have liked to see a little bit more development in other areas, but I can imagine how hard it was for Aronofsky to cut down his footage to 105minutes already, so I suppose I forgive him for that. As a whole though, I really enjoyed the arc of the movie and issues that were raised. Dare I say, the movie seemed too short?
It was a very good movie. Extremely graphic at times, but wonderful nonetheless. I would assume that it'll hit the big screen at some point?
The ending is stellar.

- picture courtesy of www.tiff08.ca