Hi Mark,



I went to see The Wrestler yesterday and it is definitely worth all the hype. It's a simple story well told in a gritty and realistic style that suits Aronofsky perfectly, it's moving, it's funny and the fight scenes are nice and fleshy but they also bring meaning to Mickey Rourke's character. He will rightfully win the Oscar.

Yes, 'The Wrestler' is OK, but it's also entirely predictable storytelling with stock characters, we just tend not to notice because of our fascination with the physiognomy of Quasimodo Rourke. Emotionally bland. C+

I saw it last night and thought that overall it was great but there was something in me that that felt it wasn't quite done and I think it needed perhaps a little more time with the daughter. I just didn't feel like I really knew her character that well from the 3 main scenes she was in.



Oh, and great to hear someone else likes The Fountain, it's one of my favourite movies as it is one of the few that really comes close to really poetry in cinema. I thought I was the only one who liked it.

Now that you mention it I agree about the daughter, her character was one dimensional and you never really understood what happened in the past between her and Ram. That being said it wasn't really about the linear and predictable storyline, or Ram's past, it was about the themes of redemption and happiness and how the two performers found these emotions in and out of their work. That's what I thought anyway.

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I loved The Wrestler, and thought Aronofsky did a great job in understating the direction. One question though: what would the film have been like had it been directed by David Cronenberg? As Peter Bradshaw pointed out, TW at times plays much like the traditional generic sports film, and DC is an expert manipulator of genre tropes. Plus, the theme of identity confusion as well as its sheer visceral fleshiness would fit into his oeuvre perfectly. Idle speculation, i know, but as a big Cronenberg fan its perhaps something to think about?

"He looked like Quasimodo" haha.