Painfully Good.

Rating: 10/10 (14 August 2010)

This is one movie that I feel couldn't have told its story any better. A lot of that had to do with Mickey Rourke's performance. Maybe the rest was its simplicity and choice of subject. Sure, this same kind of story has already been done about a million times with boxing, or baseball, or football, or some other high profile competition where the star has outlived his prime. But professional wrestling is an underdog. It is often dismissed and ridiculed, even though its just as physically demanding and damaging as any other high contact sport.
Thus it stings a little more when we see the painful lengths Randy goes to in order to put on a show for the half-empty crowd, and the toll it takes on his body. It hurts even more as he struggles awkwardly with his personal life. He's a very flawed and human character, a generally likable guy who has taken a LOT of lumps in his life. And not all of them deserved. To Rourke's credit I often forgot I was watching an actor, and honestly I'm not really sure he WAS acting as much as giving us a look inside his head. Either way it worked.
There is always that one athlete or performer who you used to admire... "Remember what's his name? Yeah, THAT guy. I wonder what happened to him?" The Wrestler could very well be that guy.