Body Slam
No Holds Barred
Ready to Rumble

What do these three movies have in common? Three things

1. They're all movies about professional wrestling
2. They all refuse to break kayfabe (i.e. they all pretend it's real)
3. Because of reason #2, they're all terrible.

As an avid, lifelong fan of professional wrestling, I always found it rather disheartening that all the good wrestling movies were documentaries. "Where's the Rocky for wrestling?" I would wonder aloud to anybody who would listen from time to time. And what I meant by that was, where's the dramatic, gritty wrestling movie where you care about the characters? Where's the movie that portrays the in-ring action realistically without insulting the fans' intelligence. Of course, as someone pointed out to me, said film would have to make the in-ring action secondary and focus on something else, like a relationship.

Ladies and gentlemen, thanks to director Darren Aronofsky, star Mickey Rourke and screenwriter Robert D. Siegel, The Wrestler is that movie. These three men realized that making a good fictional movie about wrestling is not the Rubik's Cube-like puzzle Hollywood filmmakers seem to think it is, and it works for both smart fans, as the in-ring action is accurate and realistic, and it works for people who aren't fans at all as it is really about the man who wears the tights.

Without giving away too much, the story focuses on Randy "The Ram" Robinson, who was king of the industry in the 1980s but has since fallen on hard times, living in New Jersey and spending his weekends doing independent shows at VFW Halls and making Legends convention appearances while he works part-time at a grocery store for a biligerent jerk of a manager. Suddenly, a promoter offers him the chance for a rematch with his old 80s nemesis, The Ayatollah, to commemerate the 20th anniversary of their Madison Square Garden bout.

Randy describes himself as, "An old broken-down piece of meat." And he is in such bad shape that you wonder why he still wrestles. Simply put, it's the only thing he knows how to do and considering his would-be girlfriend does not seem to be encouraging a relationship and his only daughter hates his guts, it's the only place he has any friends, so when he gets the opportunity for this rematch, he jumps on it despite the fact that it means endangering himself. That's a very realistic situation not only in wrestling, where such situations run rampant for old-timers, but for anyone in any profession.

Nicolas Cage was initially set to play Randy the Ram, even doing some research at various Ring of Honor promotion events and training a bit before director Aronofsky decided he actually wanted Rourke, who is actually far more suitable for the role, so Cage stepped aside. That is a good thing.

For if Cage had played the role, as fine an actor as he is, I don't believe he would have been nearly as effective as Mickey Rourke. Nicolas Cage is terrific and all, but Randy the Ram Robinson is a man who had everything but led too much of a wild lifestyle and threw it all away and now he is trying to scrape by with the bare minimum. I knew nothing about Mickey Rourke before this picture, but upon learning more, I realized that is not something Nicolas Cage, who has been an A-list Hollywood star for almost two decades now, would have been able to identify with but with Mickey Rourke, that is him all over. When he was on top in the 1980s, Rourke had a face so boyish he should have been doing Calvin Klein ads and now because of boxing and plastic surgery, he looks like a man who'd ask you for a dollar in a dark alley. Randy had to look like he'd been beaten by life, and Mickey Rourke does. Darren Aronofsky could not have found a better actor.

Let me state this right off the bat: The wrestling is accurate. They acknowledge it's just a show, but they also acknowledge it's not as fake as some detractors would like you to believe. That alone gets four stars from me.

It also gets four stars from me because even though the Ram is not as sympathetic and kind-hearted as Rocky Balboa, he really does try to be but he just doesn't know anything but wrestling. And you care about him as a result.

I also will give the film props because nothing about it is a Hollywood cliche. You CAN guess what will happen but nothing happens like in a mainstream Hollywood film, and the relationships and interactions, inside and outside of the ring, are real.

The story is very, very simple but aside from that, I really enjoyed The Wrestler. After viewing it, I was stunned at how good it was. I haven't even seen any of Mickey Rourke's competitors' movies and I am already hoping he wins the Oscar.

For playing the lead in the first real professional wrestling movie ever, he certainly deserves it.

Recommended: Yes

Movie Mood: Serious Movie
Viewing Method: Sneak Preview at My Local Theater
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Nothing