Reviews: Revolutionary Road & The Wrestler

Revolutionary Road:
Leo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet play a couple whose marriage is on the brink of disaster. When they first met it was all about their ability to do anything and live life but they ended up in suburbia with two kids and horrible emptiness. Leo's character works a job he can't stand to support the family. Kate's stays at home all day thinking about the life she could of had. Then she has an idea on her husband's birthday that they should move to Paris remembering that it was his favorite place and wanting to escape the harsh reality she has to live. She manages to convince him to make the move and they become happy again, but life has a way of throwing obstacles in the way of happiness.

I found myself really wanting to like this movie but it tried to make me not like it at every turn. It felt as if Leo and Kate were overacting their parts as if they were performing in a stage production rather than a motion picture which allows its audience to get much more intimate. The dialogue was also not a help. I've grown to detest period setting movies that pretend the people of that time spoke as impersonally as they do in this movie. The other problem with the movie is that we only get to see the moment they first meet. We don't really get a chance to see them how they were or get a full idea of that they could have been which would have helped to bring home the tragedy of their current lives. Instead all we can do is imagine that at some point they must have been wonderful together. My imagination just wasn't good enough to me me care about either character nor the movie. I cannot recommend spending theatre money on this movie. C-, 4.5, 40

The Wrestler:
The Wrestler is in a way a redemption movie not only for Mickey Rourke but also for its director Darren Aronosky after 2006's The Fountain missed at both the box office and with critics. Randy "The Ram" Robinson, played by Rourke, was one of the great wrestlers from his time who is now nearing the end of his career. When we find him his has been reduced to wrestling at small venues, in school gymnasiums and small city civic centers. The fans he has left all remember his glory days of 20 years ago. After a brutal no holds barred mach her suffers a heart attack and has to come to terms with his life. Cassidy, played by Marisa Tomei, a stripper whom he's grown fond for even though she won't cross the line between customer and friend with him convinces him to see his daughter again played by Evan Rachel Wood. And things do begin to pick up for him in that life always grants you a second chance sort of way, but what is given can also be taken or thrown away.

This is what a tour de force is. Rourke carries the movie on those huge shoulders of his and has us captivated the whole way. Also there is some great camera work done in this movie that cannot go unmentioned. From the moment Rourke appears on screen we are following him as if we are walking to the stage right behind him. We follow him venue he lives in, and the life he performs in. For Ram, the two are reversed as after a person who has lived a life like that can understand - he is only truly alive when in the ring. The movie captures the action of wrestling best of any film to feature the sport. And there's a documentary feel to it as well as we get to go backstage and see the respect and appreciation the performers have for each other and it comes off as real. You see the effect of what these men put their bodies through and why they do it again and again. Aside from all that, the movie remembers it's about the man and not the sport. And we are shown the sum of this mans parts fully exposed for all to see. I highly recommend finding this movie. It's in a limited release, but well worth the effort. A, 9.5, 90.