A story of personal ruin and while it certainly does echo Mickey's own life, it wouldn't be fair to say he is playing himself. Sure, Rourke's performance must have been informed by his own past, but that is different, as well as peculiarly powerful.

| Aug 29, 2018

Great performances, great story.

| Original Score: A | Mar 21, 2017

| Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 18, 2011

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 17, 2011

Who better than Rourke to sell the idea of a battered, yet proud pugilist in search of redemption?

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jan 22, 2009

The film demands to be seen, thanks to the deceptively simple artistry and humanity Aronofsky brings to the story and to the indelible performances.

| Jan 22, 2009

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.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 16, 2009

An emotional smackdown. Rourke's never been better, and the change of pace and texture suits Aronofsky perfectly. The Raging Bull of wrestling movies? Oh, go on then.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 16, 2009

The weakness of Aronofsky's film is that these various sentimental crises are framed with as much subtlety as Randy's wildly overdue heart attack. The film lurches into a predictable panic about dying alone.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 16, 2009

The Wrestler runs on what are admittedly pretty traditional lines for a sports film, yet runs on them with exhilarating speed and attack. I was waiting for a cop-out ending, but it never arrived.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 16, 2009

Not only has he hauled Rourke from his self-pitying slump, but, working from a screenplay written by Robert D Siegel, he has created an often-brutal, always-compelling portrait of a decent man trying to peel himself off Skid Row.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 16, 2009

The platitude-intensive script by Robert Siegel would have been laughed off the screen without Rourke's dogged grandeur.

| Jan 16, 2009

The characters may be stereotypes to us, but they're played here with a love and tenderness and resignation that could break your heart.

| Jan 16, 2009

It's as much a magnificent comeback for director Darren Aronofsky (after the grand, over-digitised folly of The Fountain) as it is for Rourke, and there's a beautifully understated authenticity to this funny yet bleak, low-budget triumph.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 16, 2009

A beautifully etched, touching essay about a damaged, desperate brute hoping for one taste of dignity and real fatherhood before his life goes down for the count for the final time.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 16, 2009

The Wrestler is, in essence, an excellent B-movie centred upon a defiantly top-rate performance from Rourke.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 16, 2009

As far as I'm concerned, you can keep your Sean Penns and your Brad Pitts and your Frank Langellas; if there's any justice in the world, this year's best actor Academy Award will be going home with Rourke.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 9, 2009

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.

| Original Score: B | Jan 9, 2009

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.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 9, 2009

With uncommon intelligence and brutal honesty, The Wrestler examines the cost, and need, of battle.

| Original Score: A | Jan 9, 2009