The Wrestler

After years in the wilderness, Mickey Rourke makes the comeback of the decade as an ageing wrestler in a powerful and uplifting drama. Randy The Ram is decades past his prime, his overly tanned body now damaged from years of abuse in the ring. With the big arena matches of yesteryear past, our hero is reduced to signing autographs at conventions and performing in school halls, driven to keep on wrestling by the sound of the crowd chanting his name and a chance to relive his previous glory and fame. When he collapses in the changing room following a match his doctors tell him he must hang up the spandex or face death. Rourke delivers a performance that will leave no one mistaken that he deserves to win the Best Actor Oscar, in a film that is one of the greatest underdog stories ever told. [Kevin McHugh]

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