The Wrestler
The movie centers on Randy 'The Ram', an aging professional wrestler, decades past his prime, who now barely gets by working small wrestling shows in VFW halls and as a part-time grocery store employee. Randy lives to be a hero once again in the only place he considers home, inside the ring.
1 October 1983, Alpine, New Jersey, USA
1 December 1921, South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
19 March 1986, Staten Island, New York, USA
29 October 1967, Brookline, Massachusetts, USA
24 January 1941, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
10 May 1972, Woodbury, New Jersey, USA
14 January 1964, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
12 April 1981, Vietnam
October 21, 2014
As the film points out, wrestling may be fixed, but it certainly ain't fake. This may be a film, but it certainly ain't fake either.
February 20, 2014
Darren Aronofsky's filmmaking in The Wrestler is the most subtle and nuanced he's ever done.
June 22, 2013
The movie is populated with real wrestlers, and it makes sure to nail all the little details.
May 17, 2016
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.
January 14, 2009
The chance to play that poignant confusion is the real prize that Rourke and Tomei earn in The Wrestler.
March 21, 2017
Great performances, great story.
January 09, 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.
January 16, 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.
October 07, 2015
The most interesting aspect of the film is its depiction of the irreconcilable difference between someone's public and private personae.
January 16, 2009
Aronofsky directs with unfussy candour, alternating between the intensity of the wrestling and the drabness of Randy's 'real' life.
January 09, 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.
January 16, 2009
It's a wonderful, career-reviving performance, and you can't imagine the movie without him. Welcome back, Mickey.
