Darren Aronofsky is taking on The Wrestler

[Spider-Fan]

There is a lot of history between Randy and his daughter that we didn't see, so I think her meltdowns are very realistic.

 

[Dark Donnie]

I thought the scenes with Rourke and Wood were very realistic b/c Ive lived them to a degree, and we are made well aware the Randy was never there for her and when he shows up it's clear she hasn't seen him in years, so she goes off on him, same after he drops her in.

Agreed....it's pretty clear when he appears to not know here birthday, or even when he's talking to Tomei she asks about what his daughter likes, and how she dresses, and he has no clue.

 

[DOG LIPS]

Just saw this, and I loved it. Damn good movie, and it was packed too.

 

[Lunar_Wolf]

Saw it a few days ago. Should of got the best picture nod. The Reader my ass...

 

[nite-owl]

Pro Wrestlers Talk About The Wrestler


I hope the full thing is on the DVD.

So do I. Quick question when Ram is talking to Nigel and The Ayatollah was that Aries in the background?

 

[Van Petrol]

Rourke hints at Wrestlemania appearance:

Rourke hints at Wrestlemania appearance
Monday, January 26 2009, 12:44 GMT

By Lara Martin

The Wrestler star Mickey Rourke has hinted that he could wrestle for real at an upcoming WWE event.

Speaking to Access Hollywood at last night's SAG awards, the actor revealed that he had been asked to participate at the forthcoming Wrestlemania 25 pay-per-view.

"The boys from the WWE called me and asked me to do it," he said. "I said, ‘I want to.’ I’m talking with [WWE legend] Rowdy Roddy Piper about it.

"Chris Jericho, you better get in shape... Because I’m coming after your ass!"

Rourke, who has received critical acclaim for his portrayal of a fading pro-wrestler, added that he was honoured that the wrestling world had welcomed the film.

"The nicest thing has been the whole wrestling community embracing us. The movie was about their world."

Wrestlemania 25 will be broadcast live from the Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas on April 5.

Source: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/showbiz/a144552/rourke-hints-at-wrestlemania-appearance.html

 

[The Sage]

So do I. Quick question when Ram is talking to Nigel and The Ayatollah was that Aries in the background?

The credits listed Austin Aries, so probably.

 

[The Guard]

There is a lot of history between Randy and his daughter that we didn't see, so I think her meltdowns are very realistic.

I guess if her character is basically just a psycho hosebeast, yes, that's realistic. But it just rang false for me for her to go RIGHT into that mindset. There'd be far more impact if we saw who she REALLY was first, and saw how much she was hiding her anger, but we don't get that. She just MELTS DOWN the second he shows up. By far, the weak point of the film's structure and writing.

And that's another point. Their father/daughter "issues" are thin, at best, and could have been written by a 12 year old. "You were never there! You don't know my birthday!" While these are real issues, they are not deep or particularly interesting ones. There is no real motivation beyond the basic "You weren't there for me, and I'm mad about it". Unless we're supposed to feel bad that she became a lesbian or something over it (which I don't). Hell, Jim Carrey's absent father in LIAR, LIAR had better development in that regard.

 

[nite-owl]

The credits listed Austin Aries, so probably.

I thought so.

 

[Hunter Rider]

Edit* It's not worth the time.

 

[Figs]

Can't wait to see this, plan on going Tuesday night.

After this I think I'll check out Frost/Nixon or maybe Milk.

 

[Luchastyle]

I hope Rourke has a real match at mania. That'd be awesome. I think if he has stayed in shape, and he let's Jericho call the whole thing, they could put on a pretty good match.

 

[Spider-Fan]

I guess if her character is basically just a psycho hosebeast, yes, that's realistic. But it just rang false for me for her to go RIGHT into that mindset. There'd be far more impact if we saw who she REALLY was first, and saw how much she was hiding her anger, but we don't get that. She just MELTS DOWN the second he shows up. By far, the weak point of the film's structure and writing.

And that's another point. Their father/daughter "issues" are thin, at best, and could have been written by a 12 year old. "You were never there! You don't know my birthday!" While these are real issues, they are not deep or particularly interesting ones. There is no real motivation beyond the basic "You weren't there for me, and I'm mad about it". Unless we're supposed to feel bad that she became a lesbian or something over it (which I don't). Hell, Jim Carrey's absent father in LIAR, LIAR had better development in that regard.

Then you've never been exposed to poor relationships my friend. It is very realistic. My mother three years ago went to my cousin's birthday party. My mom's brother showed up, and they are on not speaking terms. Just knowing my uncle was there made my mom depressed, and my mom was on and off in tears the entire rest of the day. From a brief encounter. Heck, just this year, my mother was in NY during this same even, and the party was at my sister's house, and my uncle's presence in my sister's house was enough to put my mom in tears.

You obviously can't relate to bad history between people, thus you think this kind of reaction is unrealistic. However, I've seen it happen.

 

[Swordmaster]

Caught this today. While I'm not at all a fan of wrestling, I cannot deny this was a beautiful, engaging film. And what a performance from Rourke.

10/10

 

[The Guard]

Then you've never been exposed to poor relationships my friend. It is very realistic. My mother three years ago went to my cousin's birthday party. My mom's brother showed up, and they are on not speaking terms. Just knowing my uncle was there made my mom depressed, and my mom was on and off in tears the entire rest of the day. From a brief encounter. Heck, just this year, my mother was in NY during this same even, and the party was at my sister's house, and my uncle's presence in my sister's house was enough to put my mom in tears.

There is a huge difference between being depressed and crying a little (or even a lot), and becoming almost instantly "unhinged" when you see someone.

You obviously can't relate to bad history between people, thus you think this kind of reaction is unrealistic. However, I've seen it happen.

Why you feel the need to make ridiculous assumptions about someone you don't know is beyond me.

My wife has a situation nearly identical to the stuff in The Wrestler. Her father left her as a young child and never looked back until recently, after she had grown up. She bottled it up, and put on a brave face when she saw her father...yes, it upset her, but she didn't just "melt down" the second she saw him, or the second he tried to talk to her.

Is my wife everyone? No, and I wouldn't pretend this to be the case.

I've known people who are flat out mentally unbalanced who don't melt down that fast when confronted with a similar situation.

Here's the main point, though. It isn't about my experiences, or what's "real". What's real is different for everyone.

I am not interested in how some real people melt down.

I am interested in this as a staged performance. As an execution of such, it was not a compelling presentation of the moment. It was a one note performance. It did not make for a compelling character at all. It was LIFETIME movie level, and frankly not even that good, because even LIFETIME movies know not to just open the floodgates without some kind of buildup. It was easily the weakest part of the film. And this is coming from someone who LOVES Evan Rachel Wood, and thinks she can do no wrong most of the time.

But I maintain that the father/daughter issues were "thin". They were hardly explored at all.

 

[Hunter Rider]

It was a great representation of the situation IMO, stop trying to pass off your opinion as fact you pretentious blow hard.

 

[[A]]

^

 

[Luchastyle]

Gonna have to agree with the side that says it was handled well. It of course brought to my mind Jake the snake (Except I had sympathy for the Ram, where as I think jake the snake is worthless sack of garbage). I thought the acting in the scenes raised what COULD have been generic scenes to a new level. That's the thing, we DON'T know the whole story, so where as it may have seemed weak to you, it wasn't to the characters. And I thought her reactions, even though we didn't know the FULL motivations, were genuinely acted so that they could be felt realistically.

 

[dark_b]

what happened here?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lECmXx50q30
is this fake or what? if it is real then mickey is really a different guy.he would neeeeever be so quiet back in the 90's

 

[Spider-Fan]

There is a huge difference between being depressed and crying a little (or even a lot), and becoming almost instantly "unhinged" when you see someone.



Why you feel the need to make ridiculous assumptions about someone you don't know is beyond me.

My wife has a situation nearly identical to the stuff in The Wrestler. Her father left her as a young child and never looked back until recently, after she had grown up. She bottled it up, and put on a brave face when she saw her father...yes, it upset her, but she didn't just "melt down" the second she saw him, or the second he tried to talk to her.

Is my wife everyone? No, and I wouldn't pretend this to be the case.

I've known people who are flat out mentally unbalanced who don't melt down that fast when confronted with a similar situation.

Here's the main point, though. It isn't about my experiences, or what's "real". What's real is different for everyone.

I am not interested in how some real people melt down.

I am interested in this as a staged performance. As an execution of such, it was not a compelling presentation of the moment. It was a one note performance. It did not make for a compelling character at all. It was LIFETIME movie level, and frankly not even that good, because even LIFETIME movies know not to just open the floodgates without some kind of buildup. It was easily the weakest part of the film. And this is coming from someone who LOVES Evan Rachel Wood, and thinks she can do no wrong most of the time.

But I maintain that the father/daughter issues were "thin". They were hardly explored at all.

You can try and spin this how you want, but my mother and many others I've seen in situations like this meltdown. Perhaps your wife doesn't, but you claimed no one does. I can name tons of people. Thus, the scenes are not unrealistic. You just want to say they are and be right, when you're not.

 

[Gallagher]

I believe it's scripted.

 

[The Guard]

It was a great representation of the situation IMO, stop trying to pass off your opinion as fact you pretentious blow hard.

Hunter...you usually strike me as smart to know that even when people don't say "In my humblest opinion" between every sentence...that they are still stating their opinion.

Frankly, I was unaware that we were not allowed to have strong opinions.

I was also unaware that wanting something more than a sub-LIFETIME level meltdown with a complete lack of subtlety to the moment makes me "pretentious".

Did I say that you all could not enjoy it as its presented? No, I did not.

I don't believe it's handled well. I've said my piece. I did not try to say it's not handled well in the context of my own experiences, and I think I made that pretty clear.

Is my wife everyone? No, and I wouldn't pretend this to be the case.

I've known people who are flat out mentally unbalanced who don't melt down that fast when confronted with a similar situation.

Here's the main point, though. It isn't about my experiences, or what's "real". What's real is different for everyone.

I am interested in this as a staged performance. As an execution of such, it was not a compelling presentation of the moment.

You can try and spin this how you want, but my mother and many others I've seen in situations like this meltdown. Perhaps your wife doesn't, but you claimed no one does. I can name tons of people. Thus, the scenes are not unrealistic. You just want to say they are and be right, when you're not.

Where did I claim no one melts down like that? Show me where I said that.

I'm not trying to convince you to see things my way. You want to enjoy it for what it is, enjoy it for what it is.

I don't recall ever saying that the emotion there is unrealistic, so much as it is over the top and not executed particularly well overall. I've made it pretty clear that I think that there was probably a better way to execute the sequence itself, and a more mature approach to it.

That's the thing, we DON'T know the whole story, so where as it may have seemed weak to you, it wasn't to the characters. And I thought her reactions, even though we didn't know the FULL motivations, were genuinely acted so that they could be felt realistically.

Yes. We don't know the whole story. The story between them is thin. It's not explored deeply at all. He left her, he's unreliable, and she's pissed about it. Whether you buy it or not as a motivation for her to get angry, it's still pretty thin. There's not much to it. Maybe that's on purpose, but it doesn't change my perception of it being thin as a theme. Luckily his reactions to it have some depth.

As for her performance...yeah, it's convincing enough that she's mad at him. It doesn't take a whole lot of talent to get angry and scream at someone. Did I believe her character was angry? Absolutely. Did I believe her motivations for it? Nope.

It may well be the script that called for this approach. I'm not bashing her performance so much as questioning the overall execution of the whole moment. I think the moment could have been handled better.

 

[Hunter Rider]

Hunter...you usually strike me as smart to know that even when people don't say "In my humblest opinion" between every sentence...that they are still stating their opinion.

Frankly, I was unaware that we were not allowed to have strong opinions.

I was also unaware that wanting something more than a sub-LIFETIME level meltdown with a complete lack of subtlety to the moment makes me "pretentious".

It's all in delivery and yours comes off like someone just anointed you the know it all of how cinema should be executed, it gets on my nerves, my strong opinion if you will.

"Sub Lifetime" I rest my case, your arrogance of labeling something in such a fashion bares out exactly why I used the word to describe you that I did, stating ones views is one thing, to use such a banal term is to try and raise your view as if it were somehow a fact you are bestowing on the rest of us, the same is if I were to label your anal retentive style as such openly, to try and negate your view due to your overly verbose cover ups of thinly cited nitpicks.

 

[Cinemaman]

Well, I haven't seen the film yet, but I think The Guard has his right to express his opinion about the film and everything what's related to it, so I think we should leave him with that.

Whether it's positive or negative, it's still his opinion.

 

[Hunter Rider]

Where was I or anyone stopping him having his opinion ? he's presenting it in a way I find obnoxious and I am letting him know, which is my right.