April 3, 2009 | reviews

There’s a scene in The Wrestler when Randy “The Ram” Robinson (Mickey Rourke) asks his daughter (Evan Rachel Wood in an unsung strong performance) whose life he has missed not to hate him. “I’m an old broken down piece of meat,” he tells her, his eyes moist, the weight of his life’s failings in them.

There are brutal in-ring scenes in The Wrestler – it’s tough for wrestlers to fake a staple gun attack – but it’s debatable whether the emotional truths of the film are any less vicious. This is of course compounded by the star of the film. Mickey Rourke delivers a performance here that for its physical challenges and the naked honesty it required of him deserves to be considered alongside Robert De Niro’s turn in Raging Bull as one of the all-time great method acting performances.

Like Rourke, Randy the Ram had his heyday in the 1980s. The 2000s are worse than the 1990s and they, as Randy says, “sucked”. For some unexplained reason, Randy, once a top-drawing pro-wrestling star, has hit bottom. He works at a grocery store for the kind of manager who it would be a pleasure to see throttled and on weekends he dons the tights for wrestling shows that are only a slight step up from back room dog fights. All of it is framed by Darren Aronofsky in a documentary style that brings the viewer inside this sad, thankless world.

There are light moments in The Wrestler – try not to smile at Randy’s impromptu dance in a neighbourhood pub or the one-liners he dishes out to bemused deli customers. But the overall tone here is one of gloom. This is a Rocky movie without any hope of a Rocky ending. Stripper Cassidy/Pam (Marisa Tomei) makes for a complicated Adrian, hemmed in by the rules that say a stripper must never get involved with a customer and being a single mother and fighting against the genuine feelings she has for Randy, borne out of the freak chance of two gentle and decent people meeting in such a pit.

The central question of The Wrestler is whether it is preferable to face and deal with reality, however horrible, or to continue with the kind of self-delusion that is more of a balm than the pain-killers Randy pumps himself full of. The choice Randy makes is inevitable.

With the explosion of the wrestling scenes and the implosion outside the ring this is a devastating film, and one of the best of 2008. Four and a half stars.

Noel, Bangkok

[Editor's note: Please check out our Top 10 TV and Movie Bartenders (Rourke features prominently) as well as our Top 20 Worst Masked Wrestling Gimmicks Rourke does not feature prominently]