movie review: the wrestler

i wanted to see if it deserved all the academy awards and the 98% rottentomatoes.com rating...

warning: it is not a movie to watch while eating. there is lots of wince-inducing violence and blood.

warning #2: it is quite sexually vulgar, which i didn't realize until it was too late and i wanted to see how it ended.

so there are a few issues he works through, which are, that he is a super-senior in the wrestling world, but since it's all he knows and loves, he kills himself by taking steriods, tanning, bleaching his hair, working out like a madman, until one day after a grueling match, he has a heart attack. after the heart attack, he stops wrestling per the doctor's orders, and is miserable, which leads to him making a last hurrah. he also has an estranged daughter with whom he is trying to revive a relationship after years of terrible neglect. and he's trying to court a stripper that he has become friends with.

but the main message that won him the awards, maybe, is to do what you love - and that life is not worth living if you're not doing what you love. and that encapsulating this message in a wrestling movie is unique.

so my review... considering that the content of the movie is about wrestling and strip-dancing, i would think that there are other movies that have the same message, but with a more wholesome backdrop (like walk the line). i wonder why there had to be a stripper (and lots of inappropriate scenes) in it.... because while the movie is moving and the filming technique is interesting, i can't, for example, recommend it to people because of the content. sometimes i think hollywood just throws that stuff in there to be pseudo-artsy/ raw... but i guess it's my fault for not being more careful to read the synopsis.

on a last note, IS doing what you love worth ruining the rest of your life?