I had the chance to go to a pre-screening of the upcoming movie The Wrestler, by director Darren Aronofsky. Needless to say I am a huge fan and jumped at the chance to sneak in with the press to catch this movie about 2 months before it is released nationwide. I had an impossible time finding a trailer for this movie before hand, and I arrived to the screening knowing about 4 things: Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Darren Aronofsky, and wrestling.

The only thing that disappointed me about the movie was that Aronofsky seemed to have completely switch gears here. The movie is gritty realism, it’s washed out in it’s look and cold like the New Jersey setting it takes place in. All the visual appeal of Aronofsky’s previous movies is completely gone here, the meticulously composed shots and symbolic imagery is replaced with handheld tracking and everyday framing. This disappointed me, but on the other hand it does prove that Aronofsky can direct anything, but in this case, when he cuts down the visuals and makes a character piece, he’s as good as anyone else, and in fact this movie could have been directed by any other director.

That said, the movie is very good. It’s a slow paced character study and it will break your heart. Marisa Tomei does an excellent job, and so does Rachel Evan Wood, who continues to impress me more and more in every movie she is in. Finally, Mickey Rourke is incredible. He pretty much single-handedly carries this movie on his shoulders and gives the best performance I’ve seen this year hands down. I will be very surprised if he doesn’t get an Oscar nod.

After the movie, the audience was treated to a question and answer session with Darren Aronofsky and Marisa Tomei. I got the chance to ask Aronofsky first hand why he had completely switched gears and created a movie that was so different from his previous films. He said that after the long painful process that was the post production of The Fountain, he wanted to switch gears and do a character piece and just focus on the actors. I hope he’s over it and gets back to his bread and butter in his next piece.

For comedic relief, here are some stupid questions that were asked (I swear I am not making this up):

“Darren, why did you choose to make a documentary?”
Darren: This is a film, Mickey Rourke is not a professional wrestler.

“Darren, why did you make this movie and what do you hope people get out of it?”
Darren: (Pauses for a second) Next question!?

“Marisa, how do you stay so damn hot?”
Marisa: (laughs)

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