The Wrestler (15)

WELCOME to MovieTime ... click on the screen below see my video review of The Wrestler.

If you liked my MovieTime video email me at movietime@notw.co.ukand I'll send you a link every time I put a new video up.

I've got 50 DVDs to give away - including The Sentinel, and 80s classics Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Three Amigos. I'll be sending them out to 50 people chosen at random from everyone who emails me.

How ironic is it that the violence in The Wrestler is so realistic it's almost unwatchable . . . in a film about professional wrestling?

But then nothing about The Wrestler is what you'd expect - unless you're expecting the best sports movie for ages, of course.

Mickey Rourke stars as washed-up professional wrestler Randy "The Ram" Robinson.

A household name in the 1980s, he's been reduced to grappling with oiled-up weirdos for the entertainment of a handful of rednecks to scrape together the rent for his one-bed trailer.

(That's the character we're talking about here, not the actor.)

It's pathetic, but also kind of endearing, watching a pop-eyed car-wreck with their best years behind them, chasing the last cheapest scraps of fame-a bit like Britney on the X Factor.

Randy's contented enough. But after a particularly grisly bout (think barbed wire, a staple gun, and-not kidding-someone getting bludgeoned around the head with a punter's false leg) Randy has a heart attack and is warned never to wrestle again.

THE WRESTLER: Mickey Rourke as Randy "The Ram" Robinson

The poor, bloated sod has to eke out a post-fame living flogging refrigerated goods at a discount supermarket (hello, Kerry Katona).

But then the chance comes along to take part in a 'legends' bout at a fan convention.

So can he resist? Or will he be suckered back in by the undeniable glamour of strapping himself into luminous green spandex and getting his face squashed beneath a fat man's butt cheeks for half an hour?

The Wrestler's an astonishing achievement. It makes the most bog-standard of "one last shot at the big time" clichés shine like the most brilliantly original plot you've ever heard.

This is almost entirely thanks to Mickey Rourke. Because this is one hell of a comeback film for the troubled actor.

Oddly, the camera trails behind Mickey's back for the first 15 minutes of the movie, never allowing the slightest glimpse of his face. Oddly, that is, until you actually see the blessed thing. Because holy cow.

You need at least a quarter of an hour to steel yourself for the shock.

The man looks like either a half-chewed turnip, a baboon with a skin complaint, or something that's been dragged out of a nasty fire at Madame Tussauds.

Either way, it ain't good. But for this film? He couldn't be any more perfect.

As a has-been star taking one last ham-fisted stab at the big time, this is the ideal marriage of actor and film.

Nudity

And, bluntly, Rourke barnstorms it.

Because The Ram (real name Robin Ramzinsky) is a big old pile of mashed up flesh.

"A broken down piece of meat," as he calls himself, during one of the film's many superb dialogue scenes.

But, incredibly, Rourke still has every last twinkle of devilish charm from the long-distant 9½ Weeks period.

He takes what could have been a hackneyed old cartoon of a role, and pumps it full of stomach-cramping darkness, shafts of unexpected humour, and buckets of perfectly observed humanity.

It's a sight to behold-almost definitely THE lead performance of the year.

And it will secure him a place on the Oscars best actor shortlist and quite possibly a Golden Baldie to take home.

ROUR FLESH: Battered star Mickey back on form as washed-up wrestler The Ram

So well done Mickey. And it's fair to say, most people will justifiably see The Wrestler as a one-man show.

But two other people deserve a hearty pat on the back, a half-Nelson under the armpit and a cobra clutch suplex off the top turnbuckle.

Firstly, Marisa Tomei who plays Cassidy, an aging stripper and Randy's kind-of girlfriend,

It's a fearless performance. Packed with realism, heart, and oodles of completely necessary nudity.

(I say realism-if anyone knows of any 44-year-old strippers who look even half as good as she does, feel free to drop me an email.)

And secondly, writer Robert Siegel. Because talented a fellow as director Darren Aronofsky is, I'm tempted to lay credit for The Wrestler's best moments at Rob's door.

From the underplayed comedy of The Ram's washed-up wrestling opponents, Jim E. Normous, Poppa Don and The Funky Samoans . . .

Not to mention his old arch-enemy The Ayatollah, "who's doing really well with his used car lot in Arizona" . . .

To the brilliant moment where Cassidy compares Mickey's life of torture for entertainment to Jesus, before explaining: "You know, the guy from The Passion of the Christ.

"They beat f**k out of him for two hours. It's great."

OUT FRIDAY

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