Rourke triumphs over adversity in astonishing movie

Rating: 10/10 (19 December 2010)

The Wrestler is one of the most poignant and powerful movies to come out of Hollywood in the past decade. Micky Rourke gives a quite astonishing performance as the ageing, broken hearted (and boned) fighter living on past glories desperately patching up his abandoned body to keep eking out a living doing the only thing he knows how to. His life is turned on its head when he suffers a heart attack in the aftermath of a brutal fight, yet wonderfully the picture fails to fall into the clichés of fight movies and avoids all the pitfalls that are invariably attached to a vehicle of this kind. Never before have we see seen so graphically and movingly just what the fighters have to go through in the name of entertainment and to give their fans what they want. We see the wrestlers discussing their moves before each fight, but this doesn't detract from the bone crunching punishment they take even if their bouts are elaborately stage managed. There is no better fight scene in the movie than when Rourke secretly cuts his own forehead with a concealed razor blade to get the crowd believing his injury has been caused in the ring. Rourke then has to try and achieve a reconciliation with his distant daughter, and also tries to build a relationship with lap dancing Marisa Tomei. The parallels between the two leads are obvious - Tomei's character also recognises the degradation and humiliation attached to her job as she tries to maintain a body 'fit for purpose' in a job that she has to do to pay the bills. Rourke is the colossal star of the show here - he underplays his depair with a magical touch and we root for him 100% despite him not wallowing in his vulnerabilities. The Academy Award voters must hang their heads in shame as never has an actor been more deserving of an award as Rourke. This is a phenomenal movie, and is highly recommended.