Film Review: The Wrestler

6:34p.m., Mon 8 Dec 2008

There's not many roles that Mickey Rourke can excel in any more, not with that face. Luckily, a washed-up, long-in-the-tooth wrestler bearing the scars of 20 years in the ring is one of the few, and he excels as Randy "The Ram" Robinson in Darren Aronofsky's "The Wrestler".

The film follows the twilight years of Robinson's career as a forty-something wrestler still scratching a living in a dying sport. The days of wrestling in a packed Madison Square Garden with 1.5 million cable viewers are gone and The Ram is performing at small events in provincial high schools and community centres.

Aronofsky's direction is, unusually for him, subtle and deft. There's dark elements, he doesn't shirk from showing the true pain and physical suffering that the wrestlers go through, but it's not as bleak or oblique as his previous works and, as a consequence, it's probably his most commercial film*. Comprising long takes and handheld camera work it bears the documentary-style aesthetic of a small indie movie. At its core however, The Wrestler is a straight-forward underdog story with a supporting cast of one-dimensional characters: the stripper with a heart of gold (Marisa Tomei), the bitter abandoned child (Evan Rachel Wood) and the cynical, bullying boss (Todd Barry).

What really elevates this movie is the lead. Director Aronofsky has captured perhaps THE defining performance of Rourke's career. It would have been almost unthinkable a decade ago that Rourke would have any kind of acting career in the future. His turn in Sin City was a surprise and a joy, but this movie sees him take on a role in a very human movie without any kind of stylised hyper-real aesthetic. That Rourke does all his own stunts and routines in the ring adds to the film's painful and gritty realism.

It's conventional and formulaic, but a skilled director who's not afraid to explore the extremities of a story, plus an incredibly strong lead performance make this a film with distinct merits. And maybe an Oscar shot for Rourke.

* = at least until his re-imagining of Robocop makes it to cinemas

'The Wrester' Links...

• Trailer from traileraddict.com
• IMDb Entry
• Official site on foxsearchlight.com