"The Wrestler" Review- Written by Shaun Berk

I got to see this last night and while I'm not ready to put it in my recommendations as of yet, I still recommend it. I don't usually write reviews but in this case I must speak of it. I am a wrestling fan and I have had some involvement in the wrestling industry in a couple promotions as a ring announcer so this really hit home for me.

Through the years we have had such wrestling movies like THE WRESTLER (1974 and no it has nothing to do with), BODY SLAM (probably the best of what i am naming off), NO HOLDS BARRED, READY TO RUMBLE, and NACHO LIBRE (does that even count?), director Darren Aronofsky and writer Robert Siegel bring us a compelling story of a wrestler.

Mickey Rourke stars as wrestler Randy "The Ram" Robinson, who was big in the 80s but has his best days behind him. He still continues to wrestle for smaller promotions and works at a grocery store. When I first heard about this movie and when I told them about who is the star they could not believe someone as old as Rourke would play a wrestler. I have seen many wrestlers that are his age that just cannot retire because that is all they know. Randy does whatever he can to stay just standing and uses a lot of drugs to do so. Seeing them go backstage at a wrestling show brings back a lot of memories. After a very brutal match with the real-life wrestler Necro Butcher at a show for the real-life promotion CZW, he ends up having a heart-attack and learning that he should not wrestle any longer.

Trying to adjust to this life, he tries to reconnect with his daughter Stephanie, played very well by Evan Rachel Wood, who he has had a very difficult relationship and obviously was never there for her but wants to make up for it. He also wants to form a relationship with his stripper friend Pam, played by Marisa Tomei, but she has issues of her own and is reluctant to have a relationship. Randy also starts working full time in the meat department of the grocery store. With this, he sees that all he really knows and the only place he is really accepted is in the wrestling ring and agrees to have a match with his 80s rival the Ayatollah, played by wrestler Ernest "The Cat" Miller.

What I expected here was a ROCKY-type story formula but that is really far from what is. Randy is someone who is very flawed but is aware of these flaws and really wants to change but that is very difficult for him, especially with his daughter. We have nice interactions between Rourke and Tomei and Rourke brought such warmth to the Randy "The Ram" Robinson character. I heard that Nicolas Cage was first considered but Rourke was perfect for this part and got wrestling training from WWE Hall of Famer Afa Anoai of the tag team The Wild Samoans.

This was more than a wrestling movie. This was a movie on a man passionate about what he does but loses it and wants it back.

Bruce Springsteen has a new song THE WRESTLER which is great. I really had to analyze this when I was done and realized this was so greatly done in my opinion. As someone who has been backstage in wrestling, it was a pretty accurate film on wrestling and the backstage world. When I heard about this movie, I was so excited since I am a fan of Mickey Rourke and of wrestling and can't believe this was done.

Even if you don't like wrestling, this is still very watchable. There are many real-life wrestlers in the back-stage scenes.

That is about all I really have to say. I don't usually do this but feel very compelled to right now. Stay tuned on Saturday or Sunday for the 165th Edition of Shaun Berk's 10 Movie Recommendations which includes a movie with Mickey Rourke.