Great Film Only Slightly Marred by Hokey Ending

Rating: 8/10 (2 January 2009)

In "The Wrestler," Mickey Rourke finds himself matched with the perfect role at the perfect moment in his career, and gives a performance that makes you wonder why he waited this long to show the world how good an actor he can be.
Rourke plays Randy the Ram Robinson (real name Robin, but don't call him that), a professional wrestling has-been, relegated to third-tier matches in out-of-the-way towns, attended by a smattering of fans who still remember who he is. After a particularly brutal and gimmicky match involving barbed wire, glass and a nail gun, he suffers a heart attack and undergoes bypass surgery. Faced with the prospect of not ever being able to wrestle again (which to that point has been his whole life), he decides to reconnect with his estranged daughter (Evan Rachel Wood, effective in a few brief scenes) and makes romantic overtures to a woman who works at his favorite strip joint (Marisa Tomei).
Much of "The Wrestler" feels like a documentary about the behind-the-scenes workings of professional wrestling, or more accurately, about what happens to professional wrestlers after they're spit out of the entertainment mill. We see Randy locked out of his trailer when he can't muster the rent and begging for more hours at the supermarket where he works. He's the Norma Desmond of the wrestling world, waiting patiently at autograph signings barely attended by anybody, carting around VHS tapes of his professional highlights to sell to anyone who might still actually own a VCR. He's a relic from the 1980s, as illustrated in a wonderful scene in which he and Tomei discuss those good 'ol days and the great bands they produced, until Kurt Cobain came along and ruined everything.
Rourke plays Randy as a gentle giant, whose tender and warm way with people belies his fierce professional persona. He gives a marvelous performance, achingly sad but not maudlin. This is pretty much his movie entirely; Tomei and Wood each get a few moments to shine, but Rourke holds the screen and doesn't let it go.
The only thing that marred this movie for me was its ending. Most of the movie is completely lacking any of the phony Hollywood trappings that mar so many other movies. Therefore, the "Rocky"-style ending, with Randy's true love racing the clock to get to his match on time, and us left wondering whether or not he's going to drop dead of a heart attack right in the middle of his big moment, felt like a cheat.
But otherwise, this is one of the better movies I've seen this year.
Grade: A-