Spoilers

W were up to W. Time for The Wrestler. A film that got some award season success but since that year hasnt been looked at that much. & if im honest, i havent thought about it too much either, so i thought this would be a good way to watch this with the A to Z & see how well its aged & how much abotu wrestling it gets right or wrong.

Now as someone who semi regular watches wrestling & knows the lore behind it, i get why this guy didnt want to quit wrestling. Even to this day the Rock sits there now a major movie star & goes i have to come back there is nothing like the feedback from a crowd be you a heel or a face &the buzz & the adrenaline is real. & then you sit there now & watch the people who were in their 30s when you were like 10 still going, still getting beaten up, still taking one too many hits to the head, it proves a point.

I think casting Mickey was the perfect choice for this. This was his come back movie & opened a lot more doors for him in films in the next 8 years (he has gone quiet again now for all sorts of reasons). But the way he acts & behaves as a has been wrestler & his attitude on life is exactly what you expect to come from these guys. He gave such a memorable performance & im not sure anyone else could have been cast in that role. He deserved his awards season glory for this film.

Watching all the horrible matches they put him through at points, its graphic. Especially when these are being done by local indi wrestling companies, probably with no medical or insurance for you, when your landing on tacs & getting done with a staple gun. Its full on but if your outside of a big promotion thats how you get seen & picked up to go & start learning else where.

The heart attack scene is very hard to watch but shows that yes its fake but it is also very real what people put themselves through for the sport & our entertainment. Its dark but is a very real struggle. It reminds you that we only have one body to get us through all of this & we need to take care of it & maybe we should listen to it more often.

The stripper relationship made sense, but knowing how stubborn both were we all knew it was never going to work out, also it was nice people from all ages & races being strippers. Often film & tv just make them a certain way, im sure you all know what i mean by that.

There is a really poignant moment when he trys to reconnect with his daughter which im pretty sure is why he wont the bafta for this. You can see that hes really trying to get the word out & you can really tell she wants to believe in him & give him one more chance even though deep down she knows its just going to hurt her again. Which is why it hurst so much when he spirals just days later has far to much to drink & has dodgy sex with some random & then misses going to see her again. For once you hoped it wouldnt be the same cliché of breaking promises but this is the same as all the other movies like that.

The final wrestling match he has sums up his life & the world of wrestling for what it is.
Nostalgia.
Rivalry.
Botch Jobs.
Over Selling.
Calling it move for move.
That being said that last shot, as you can tell hes been struggling & you know hes about to have another heart attack, so he then climbs to the top rope & looks at the crowd hearing the cheer one last time & then he leaps & the room erupts into noise & you have no idea if he lives or not… thats bloody powerful. I like that. It proves that his family & the people he belonged with were work & not his family & that only they understood that. A little bit sad but also poetic.

There are a few wrestlers in this who i recognised from the actual real wrestling world, which was odd as they are now big stars but back in 2008 they were probably just on the cusp of breaking into the big time so their faces being in these movies made complete sense, & now as you look back on it could be lore.

This is a piece of its time for sure but you cant take away Mickey performance & explains how wrestling by some is view one way & for others its a way of life both for the stars & fans. Its clever way of showing that you can risk everything if pushed for the ultimate high & makes you questions how far you would go for it. Its still very good & you could watch a lot worse for 90mins.