One of the most human and real movies I have seen in years

Rating: 10/10 (13 January 2009)

In an age of insipid comedies and blow em up action flicks aided by CGI comes this heart wrenching story of a man who's on the road to forgetting who he is. He spends his days alone and the main identity he has is from the 80s, and he is so attached to the his performance name Randy "The Ram" Robinson that he can't go by his real name.
After watching this movie I have no doubt that in addition to winning the Golden Globe Mickey Rourke will also win the Oscar, because when you watch his gritty performance it doesn't even seem like he's acting. Because he is also someone who was washed up in the 80s like Randy, and yet the exile from mainstream has been good for Rourke in a way, because now he is a man who pulls the pathos right out of you.
But the movie isn't only deserving of pathos, and neither is Randy "The Ram". The wrestling sequences made me wince and looked painful, Aronofsky has a gift for showing pain as I learned from watching "Requiem For a Dream". The blood looks real, and those that say professional wrestling is fake are only half right.
The movie is also sexy thanks to Marisa Tomei, playing a stripper who is growing out of the business, and is as connected to the 80s as Randy. Yet because of how far apart Randy has drifted from his daughter, Tomei's Cassidy is the closest to being a friend that Randy has.
Do I think this is the best movie I've seen this year? Yes. And if it isn't the best movie of this decade, it is definitely the most humanly real.