An elderly wrestler can hardly even get small offers for wrestling and work as a part-time grocery store manager and face health problems that may end his career in wrestling. In the midst of this, some dramatic situations occur. He tries to get close to his abandoned daughter as a child and he works hard to start a new life.
Predictable as it is, this sad, strong beast of a film keeps us pinned to the mat with the strength of its compassion and the overpowering force of its central performance.
The Wrestler has the intimacy of a fly-on-the-wall documentary. No stunt men were harmed -- or used -- in the fight sequences. But the drama makes for vibrant art.
Critic's Notebook
October 07, 2015
The most interesting aspect of the film is its depiction of the irreconcilable difference between someone's public and private personae.
The movie presses too hard and too often, but the performances are strong enough to withstand the melodramatic impulses, and the themes of isolation and self-destructiveness are too sharply realized to be trivialized.
A quarter-century (and, one senses, a lot longer in Rourke Years) since he pulled the popcorn-bag trick on Carol Heathrow and then talked his way back into her good graces, we'll still forgive Mickey Rourke anything.
