Top-notch, exhilarating, jarring, authentic

Rating: 9/10 (30 December 2008)

In Darren Aronofsky's brilliant character drama The Wrestler, Randy "The Ram" Robinson (Mickey Rourke) is a down-and-almost-out pro wrestler who grapples with his own mortality and a fear of being alone and desperate. Rourke is phenomenal, delivering a powerful, highly physical performance that will knock your socks off as much as if he'd clotheslined you himself. Rourke's Randy is intrepid, a scarred battle cruiser who desperately needs to be in the ring to survive, a man who's emotions are kept as close to the vest as possible, a man with nothing else going for him other than his time in the spotlight.
The Ram, probably an amalgam of several real-life wrestlers (chief among them, Randy "Macho Man" Savage), is a relic of the 1980s, a man who wistfully counts the scars and cuts on his body and remembers with great fondness his greatest ring moment, a pay-per-view battle against The Ayatollah. But twenty years later, he's wrestling in high-school gymnasiums, barely able to put on a decent show but still basking in any glory he can find. But the gigs hardly pay at all, and more than once The Ram is unable to pay the rent on his mobile home.
Meanwhile, two people enter (and reenter) Randy's life. Cassidy (Marisa Tomei) is a stripper at a low-rent club that Randy frequents. Cassidy is just about the only person in the world that Randy can talk to; he's lonely, spending most of his postmatch time either drinking alone or patching up any new wounds. He's treading water; with no life outside of wrestling, he's just trying to make it through the night intact.
Reentering Randy's life is his long-estranged daughter, played by Evan Rachel Wood, who's hated her dad for years after he abandoned the family. Randy, in case you're still not certain, is not meant to be an entirely sympathetic figure; you know why he is how he is, and you do feel bad for him, but you also understand that just about everything that's made him who he is today is due to his own decisions. The Ram is not a victim.
Aside from the simple I'm-getting-too-old-for-this angle, there's a serious medical angel that presents itself early in the movie - keep on wrestling, the doctor warns, and you'll likely die in the ring. And to his credit, Randy does attempt to stop his own livelihood, but he quickly - and harshly - realizes how incredibly difficult that is. The real world doesn't want him, The Ram thinks. They only want what's in the ring.
Rourke is outstanding, perhaps sparking his own career renaissance, and Tomei is simply terrific as Cassidy. Tomei is a perfect physical fit for the role of the rapidly aging stripper; she's still gorgeous, but there are just enough lines on her face to make her age believable. Tomei continues to make excellent role choices, and she completely knocks this one out of the park. Her Cassidy hurts as much on the inside - and what movie stripper doesn't? - as Randy appears to on the outside, and they have much in common. It's gratifying to see Cassidy's feelings toward Randy evolve throughout the movie.
There are also several matches featuring The Ram, one of which should really appeal to wrestling fans: a hardcore match. In this kind of match, literally anything goes - barbed wire, windows, tables, chairs, anything. Yes, we all know that pro wrestling is fake, but it's fake really only in terms of the final outcome, with just a few guidelines worked out between the competitors beforehand (e.g., I'll hit you low, then you leg whip me). And of course these particular matches were staged and scripted, but man did they ever look real. You want to see something scary, check out Randy after the hardcore match, when staples - from a staple gun - are removed from his body.
The Wrestler is a gritty, raw look at one man's desire to keep on keepin' on, trying to survive the only way that's still open to him, while trying desperately to connect with someone emotionally as he ages. It's heartwarming but also heart-wrenching, and the somewhat-ambiguous ending is sure to confound people who like their movies to end tidily. It's a masterpiece for Rourke, another tour-de-force for Tomei, and an award-worthy effort for Aronofsky.