It’s often the case that films so often hyped-up beyond belief fall drastically short upon viewing but I can tell you now that The Wrestler does not fall into this category.

It would be easy for the film to drift into the sports movie stereotype of burnt-out one-time champ meets aging stripper, who then proceed to get their lives on track and end up happily ever after just like the countless other films we’ve all seen before, and perhaps with other actors and a different director it would have. The film contains some plots so clichéd and contrived that it threatens to drag it in the typical Hollywood schmaltz such as Evan Rachel Wood playing the estranged daughter who doesn’t lend much to the movie and tries to tug on the viewers heart-strings, but with Mickey Rourke and Marissa Tomei you get the real deal who lift themselves above their characters possible stereotypes and make The Wrestler what it is.

Mickey Rourke has been tipped for an Oscar and he should get it based on this performance. I was completely sold and from the off I was only thinking of Randy ‘The Ram’ Robinson and living through his desperation as he struggled to do the one thing that defines him… to be ‘The Wrestler’.

Rating:

Popularity: 28% [?]