Synopsis:

A faded professional wrestler must retire, but finds his quest for a new life outside the ring a dispiriting struggle.

The Freak's Rating: B+ : Living in middle America my entire life virtually assures me a background watching professional wrestling.  Growing up with legends of the sport in Hulk Hogan and Andre The Giant, I was a WWF fan for many years of my life.  I realize I made some eyes roll with that last sentence by referring to it as a sport.  I'd like to clarify a couple definitions, directly from Webster's before we proceed:

Sport: (1) - physical activity engaged in for pleasure (2) - a particular activity as an athletic game so engaged in

Athlete: a person who is trained or skilled in excercises, sports or games requiring physical strength, agility or stamina

Now, we can proceed with the reference to wrestlers as amazing athletes who engage in sports entertainment, right?  The "strength, agility and stamina" required to be a professional wrestler can be as intense as any other sport on the planet.  Night in and night out these men (and some women) sacrifice their bodies for our entertainment.  Though I have since stopped following wrestling as well as I used to, I still have respect for it as a sports entertainment medium.

There is a fascinating documentary called Beyond The Mat, that WWF (now WWE) president Vince McMahon attempted to keep from being released.  It chronicles the behind the scenes stories of a few wrestlers and what the sport really did to their bodies and their lives.  Jake The Snake's storyline is heartbreaking...and no doubt a model for this film, The Wrestler.

Mickey Rourke is phenomenal here, in every sense of the word.  He single handedly makes you feel the pain for all participants in the wrestling industry.  Raw emotion from his acting talent is showcased in too many scenes to mention.  His performance is reason enough to see this film.  Luckily for us, the storyline and supporting performances by Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood add even more reason to do so.

Writing is nicely done throughout, with few pacing slumps and pitch perfect dialogue.  The film's direction is jumpy at times and never seems to settle on style, which is its largest downfall.

Any film that pushes Hollywood to the limit should be encouraged by the public as strongly as possible.  The Wrestler took a chance on a writer and director with little on their resumes and a washed-up actor in Mickey Rourke.  Since his turn in Sin City, Rourke has been virtually invisible.  His career has now been reborn.  After The Wrestler, Rourke was signed for the Iron Man sequel and has numerous projects lined up, deservedly so.  The Wrestler is a sad film, but very effective.  With today's sea of mediocrity in the acting pool, it is nice to see someone with real ability get another shot.

Brian's Rating: B : I finally got around to seeing this movie despite wanting to see it ever since it was pre-released late in '08.  It garnered a lot of acclaim from the circles of friends and reviewers that I tend to share viewpoints with.

The movie was very good, and very saddening.  I only had a brief 1 year phase (or so) at the age of 14 where I was into professional wrestling, and so cannot glam on to this like some other hard-core fans.  Nevertheless, it was sobering to see what one of these broken down men's life could be like when their only marketable talent is showmanship with beating the crap out of each other.

Mickey Rourke does a great job portraying this life, the dialog, writing and acting was very well done.  The story is a little shocking, but mostly it is a simple tragedy set in the life of a beat down, aging wrestler.  One does not need to know anything about wrestling to appreciate the movie.

It has a very similar style and feel to it as JCVD, which I liked very much.  This one is probably not as good, but it may have a wider appeal.

I would recommend the movie to all, however all these Oscar-ish movies do get a bit boring when not spread out.

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