The performance of a lifetime.

Rating: 10/10 (14 February 2009)

Randy "The Ram" Robinson (Mickey Rourke) is a wrestler whose glory days are way past him. Renting a worn-down trailer in the Elizabeth area of New Jersey he is struggling to make the ends meet, he works part-time down on the supermarket and in the weekends he re-lives his glory days wrestling for die-hard fans. He has a daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) somewhere he hasn't seen in years and his only friend (Marisa Tomei) works down in the local strip-bar. Alone and torn, struggling his way down the street, Randy's body has reached its absolute limits and he maybe feels that this could be a new beginning in his life.
Shot on location, THE WRESTLER is brutally honest and is shot documentary-style, never even flinching at the true life on screen. And the teaming of Aronofsky and Mickey Rourke is absolutely perfect; Aronofsky captures every nuance in Rourke's performance and what Rourke does with his character left me speechless and belongs among the classic performances of cinema. The camera follows Rourke/Randy on his shoulders- down the street, through the stores and corridors like a beast of burden and his failing health coming down like a thunderstorm. His body-language is harsh and it's got a lean power of experience, but those experiences are tunnel-visions from living as a popular wrestler - when Randy steps out of the ring you can feel the pain of every step he takes, every word he says is trembling with brokenness and his eyes speaks of a life traveling through gutter and frays. The realism is sturdy; the worn-out landscape of the characters chimes throughout the locations of New Jersey's wintry days. The soundtrack is minimal, and most of the music throughout the film is 80ties hair metal pumped out through speakers in bars, in Randy's van or in during matches. And when among wrestlers, we're introduced to a milieu that becomes interesting with the pull-togetherness of the wrestlers, their equal respects and the joy they find in their work. And in the ring Aronofsky does a great job shooting the spectacle of the "sport", and when the blood hits the floor, you do feel the same reaction of stripper Tomei's character; "I thought wrestling was fake!" - Well, there's nothing fake about a carefully choreographed plan. In the world of a falling man seeking redemption, there are heartbroken scenes that torn me apart, the broken Randy displays himself with a wrenching honesty, and the identification between Randy and Cassidy/Pam seems like something of a soul-peace erupting in a world stripped of fairy-tales. And it never even sniffs at sentiments - because these are things that need to be said, the screenplay of Robert D. Siegel is conventional, but bristles with pure emotion. And as any film capturing the real life, there are bursts of lighthearted humor; whether it's Randy and Cassidy/Pam (Tomei) agreeing on how Kurt Cobain and the 90ties messed up rock music, or Randy learning the updates of video games from a local kid, or the fantastic quirkiness of the wrestling-circus.
Bruce Springsteen wrote a great song (that frustratingly didn't get a Oscar nomination) that's full of raw power, just listen to the spare acoustic guitar and the bruised lyrics, it's played over the end credits with huge after-effect. The beating heart of THE WRESTLER is true, and so is Mickey Rourke, and it moved me more than anything I've ever seen.