Happy-Go-Lucky / The Wrestler / The Fountain

I'd heard way too often that Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler was a pretty good film, which is the perfect way to ruin a film with high expectations. For example, Joe and I started watching Happy-Go-Lucky, Mike Leigh's latest, which we’d also heard was a good film. After ½ an hour, we decided not to continue. We found ourselves rather annoyed by the main characters, especially Sally Hawkins with her continuous cackle. Same as with the whimsical music that kept popping in. I may return to it, however, as I’ve heard that the beginning of the film is a bit of a misstep for Leigh, and I'm a fan of his earlier works.

The Wrestler, in spite of all my preconceptions, surprised me. It struck a good balance between gritty realism and Hollywood storytelling. It seemed heartfelt, and its excellent script was not too maudlin when it had so many opportunities to be. Mickey Rourke is great as an excellent ex-wrestler trying to make a come-back after a heart attack takes him out of commission. And we get a peek into behind the scenes of the world of professional wrestling, which seems way stranger than anything I could dream up, like stapling one's opponent with real staples. Whoa! Director Darren Aronofsky seems to be back on track after his strange and fantastical flop, The Fountain.

We actually hadn't seen The Fountain prior to seeing The Wrestler – well, not more than twenty minutes before giving up on it – but we were so impressed with Aronofsky’s latest that we thought we'd give it another shot. I can't say I regret doing so, if only because I haven't seen anything so outlandish in quite some time, but it was really, really, really, um, strange. Not in a good way. New-Agey and sentimental and poorly acted. I'm glad that The Wrestler followed, because I might have written Aronofsky off, otherwise.

Alan Rudolph festival; The Fountain by Darren Aronofsky

As I say, I used to be a purist. I would watch an entire movie from start to finish, in one sitting, even if I hated the movie. I have only walked out of a theatre once, and that was from a combination of hunger, boredom. and the fact that I'd just seen 27 films that week (film festival). Now, faced with a glut of movies we want to watch and with limited time, we fast-forward through the ones we don't like.

We have an internet movie rental system, you know, the kind where you make a list of movies you want to see and they randomly send them to you. The last bunch of movies that came in the mail were all Alan Rudolph films. All except one we fast-forwarded. The only one that we actually watched was his latest, The Secret Lives of Dentists (2002). I wasn't expecting that much, I guess, but halfway into it, I was surprised by the Denis Leary character, in a good way. The rest of them – Trixie, The Moderns, Choose Me – Joe had seen before and remembered them as being good. Watching them this time, he was appalled. "These are crap!" he said. They were completely artificial, as in theatre. Sets, costumes, lighting, acting. All overdone. We have Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle to watch still, and both of us remember liking it when it came out. But now we're not looking forward to it. We decided to watch The Fountain instead.

Unfortunately, The Fountain was also a fast-forward. I was astounded by Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream, and liked Pi though it was student film-y. But Batman Begins was a disappointment, failing to translate the spirit of the Dark Knight. The Fountain felt like it was made by a 12 year old kid with lots of money.