A FADED PROFESSIONAL WRESTLER MUST RETIRE, BUT FINDS HIS QUEST FOR A NEW LIFE OUTSIDE THE RING A DISPIRITING STRUGGLE.
The mystery of Mickey Rourke's career comes to a grungy apotheosis in The Wrestler, the much-battered actor's triumphant return to the top rope. He plays Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a heavily scarred and medicated battler who's twenty years past his best moment in the ring. But he still schleps to every second-rate fight card he can get to, stringing out the paychecks (more likely a fistful of cash) and nursing what's left of his pride. His attempts to adjust to a more normal kind of life form the most absorbing sections in the movie, whether it's flirting with a stripper (Marisa Tomei is in good form, in every sense), establishing a bond with his understandably angry daughter (Evan Rachel Wood), or working behind the deli counter at a nondescript megastore. Rourke is commanding in the role; he obviously spent hours in the gym and the tanning salon, and his ease with the semi-documentary style adopted by director Darren Aronofsky allows him to naturalistically interact with the colorful real-life wrestlers who crowd the movie's ultra-believable locations. All of which helps distract from the film's overall adherence to ancient formula. You might find yourself waiting for the scene where the risk-taking Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream) pulls the switch and reveals his true motives for pursuing this otherwise sentimental story, but there's no switch. The Wrestler is an old-fashioned hoke machine, given grit by an actor who doesn't seem to be so much performing the role of ravaged survivor as embodying it. --Robert Horton
Stills from The Wrestler (Click for larger image)
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
In response to those who have given this movie a poor review...:
[Spoiler - I'll give away a good chunk of the story here, so if you haven't seen the movie yet, don't read this] At the time that I am writing this review, this movie is almost a year old, and currently has 132 5-star reviews on Amazon. I don't think that there is really all that much that I can say about it to praise it that hasn't already been said. Suffice it to say that I really enjoyed this movie and gave it a 5-star rating as well. One thing I enjoy doing on here is seeing what the "other... more info
I very rarely give 5 stars to any movie and/or actor, BUT, and this:
is a BIG BUT, I could never resist Mickey Rourke, who, unlike a lot of other actors quit the biz to do something else, still makes movies when he feels like it. Lets face it ,that's pretty rare, and Mickey hasen't made that many movies. Or maybe I'm giving him too much credit or he has a really, really, good agent. Either way, I've always enjoyed his acting even though he plays basically the same character in each movie. This "Wrestler" character is perfect for his type of pathos/acting, we really feel for... more info
A Great Glimpse into the World of Wrestling:
The life of a wrestler is undoubtedly an interesting one. A part of an orchestrated world of sports entertainment, it is easy for those a part of or fans of legitimate sports to dismiss the "fakeness" of wrestling. However, the life of a wrestler is indeed a difficult one as Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler demonstrates. A complete departure from his earlier films such as the existentialist Pi (1998) or the depressive Requiem for a Dream (2000), The Wrestler is a human tale of guilt and redemption in a world... more info
The Wrestler:
This is a drama about an aging professional wrestler, decades past his prime, who now barely gets by working small wrestling shows in VFW halls and as a part-time grocery store employee. As he faces health problems that may end his wrestling career for good he attempts to come to terms with his life outside the ring: by working full time at the grocery store, trying to reconcile with the daughter he abandoned in childhood and forming a closer bond with a stripper he has romantic feelings for. He struggles... more info
