Author: broderic

Selfish acts of self deception happen throughout The Wrestler. They are performed by Mickey Rourke in another come back role as the eponymous wrestler. These acts affect the woman he likes a lot and the daughter he doesn’t know. Rourke after a near death experience tries to fade away into a ignominious retirement reconciling with his daughter and falling into the arms of an old stripper, but it’s not him.

He can’t be what is not him. A lover? A father? An employee? Not at all, for the siren song of the square ring calls. He wants to be good, because he’s so lonely. Life outside the glorious and somewhat non-glamorous wrestling circuit beats him down. He was never meant to be anything but “The Ram” head-butting his way through his opponents. The ring makes him happy and any attempt to distance himself from it is just as fatal as returning to it. Lead a sad existence behind the deli counter or bask in adulation on the top turnbuckle? He must choose.

I liked this movie a lot for the wrestling. It reminded me of the days of the NWA and WWF when the wrestling federations were more regional and the stars battled with the nobodies. In the end, everyone is a nobody.

Rourke is good, but Marisa Tomei is fearless. She struts her stuff in a way that I don’t think any actress has done in a long while. It helps that she has a kickin’ body. These two ground a decent story and they’re diverging paths make it a little sad. Love may conquer all, but a “ram jam” always wins out.
4 of 5 stars.