El luchador

Ayer eché de menos en la visualmente impresionante Gran Maravilla una historia fuerte. La encontré en El Luchador. La lucha libre es algo que está muy lejos de mis intereses y aficiones, este tipo de entretenimiento nunca logró capturarme en la televisión durante más de cinco o diez minutos. Cuando era niño, solo me gustaban las películas de acción con Hulk Hogan. Sin embargo, Darren Aronofsky logró hacer una película que llama la atención, conmueve y atrapa incluso al más acérrimo oponente de esta disciplina especial. El papel de Rama le queda perfecto a Mickey Rourke. Marisa Tomei y Evan Rachel Wood también hacen un trabajo magnífico en los papeles secundarios. Una experiencia cinematográfica muy intensa y de gran calidad. (19.10.2014)

Es una obra independiente discreta. Simple, clara y limpia, y se basa en una cosa: Mickey Rourke. Darren Aronofsky es consciente de que todo lo demás no es más que el entorno de Rourke, así que le allana el camino sin florituras de dirección ni ideas de guión (ya lo hemos visto todo antes) cabalgando cómodamente sobre los hombros de su personaje. Y todo el equipo duerme en la caravana de Randy porque nadie les daría un presupuesto normal para esto. Una película agradable y modesta que podría haber sido un excelente mediometraje. (10.02.2009)

A very intense experience, as it’s usual with Aronofsky. The walking camera works wonders, making it very easy to relate to the character of the wrestler (does anyone understand this “sport”? Does it really have an audience?). The Wrestler is one of the most tiring films I’ve ever watched, but not in the sense that it’s boring, but that you’re physically exhausted after watching it. It has such an effect that it made me feel I almost experienced it first hand. Ouch! Aronofsky isn’t getting five stars out of me this time, but it was very close (there are several parts where the story loses its pace). PS: Did the style of the last scene remind anyone else of the brilliant ending of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid? (06.01.2009)

Darren probably couldn’t stand anymore of his wife’s constant teasing that she already has her golden baldie on their mantelpiece. And so he shot that type of movie which is to the critical community what a red cloth is to a bull. Seemingly a merely classic nostalgic and sad “sports" drama, heavily dependent on Rourke’s gala-performance, but he gave it something extra. Something depressing and true. And it’s really, and I mean really, not about wrestling at all. Thank god. I’m actually so allergic to that sport. This could just as well be about boxing, chess, acting or writing reviews for FilmBooster. It would work out the same, this is mainly about looking for your own “place in life". (04.01.2009)

In the end, I liked The Wrestler more than Requiem for a Dream – it affected me more on an emotional level. Whilst Requiem for a Dream is a linear and aestheticized image of doom, the story of Ram Robinson contains several layers. Aronofsky withdrew into the background and opened up the maximum amount of space possible to Mickey Rourke's captivating acting, and to playing with genre expectations. Fortunately, the fear that The Wrestler would end up with the heroic pathos of the main character overcoming himself was not confirmed - quite the contrary. The devastation of the body, the inability to establish emotional relationships and to exist fully outside the space of a painful pretense called wrestling – all of these motifs are based on pure and unadulterated drama. I have nothing negative to say about this brilliantly and cleverly constructed film. Aronofsky is able to feign like a real wrestler, but there is no doubt that the blood and pain are real. Theater sometimes hurts more than reality. The Wrestler is another of the director's drastic portraits of the bottom of American society. For me, this is the most powerful film of the year so far. (13.07.2009)