Ugly

Rating: 5/10 (17 July 2010)

A washed-up pro wrestler tries to hang on to his fading glory days while struggling with life outside the ring. The first third of this ugly movie wallows in the atrocities of wrestling, with revolting scenes of flesh wounds and bloodletting. It gets better as the focus shifts out of the ring, but clichés abound. Rourke is surprisingly good, providing a sympathetic portrait of a loser. Tomei is also good as an aging stripper. Aronofsky is so obsessed with the back of Rourke's head that about a quarter of the film is devoted to a hand-held camera following Rourke from behind as he walks around. This is the genius director's idea of riveting film-making.