THE WRESTLER

For anyone who's ever put all their eggs in one basket, his story is bound to ring true.

Despite its title, The Wrestler is not about wrestling. It's about a man who is only good at one thing in life, to the exclusion of everything else. He could have been a taxidermist or a salesman or a pilot, and the story would have remained the same. Put simply, The Wrestler is a tragedy.

When we meet up with Randy "The Ram" Robinson (Mickey Rourke), he is well past his heyday as an 80's wrestling megastar. His impressively muscled body is broken and scarred, and this badass with the long blonde mane now sports a clunky hearing aid. He lives alone in a trailer park (where he is sometimes unable to make the rent), and can be found driving around in a beat-up van blasting "Don't Know What You've Got (Till It's Gone)" by Cinderella.  Though Randy is able to recapture some of his former glory at exhibition matches, conventions, and signings, the life he has built is as empty and full of illusions as the world of pro-wrestling itself. Sadly, this thin connection to his "Ram" identity is broken when Randy has a heart attack. With wrestling out of the question, what's left for him to do?

Now painfully aware of his mortality and his limitations, Randy tries to piece together something of a real life. Maybe it's not too late to build a relationship with his college-age daughter Stephanie (Evan Rachel Wood).  Maybe his stripper friend Cassidy (Marisa Tomei) could actually be his girlfriend.  And maybe he can settle for a regular job that pays the bills and just coast for awhile. Heartbreakingly, the regular job is at a grocery store deli, and there's this awful moment when he steps through the plastic strips separating the back room from the public area that exactly parallels the moment where he would normally come through the curtains as "The Ram". It's a subtle indicator of how far he's fallen, but at the same time, succeeding at real life isn't rocket science. All he really has to do is show up.

The trouble is that Randy "The Ram" Robinson has had some chronic issues with showing up, and there is no more room for error in this father/daughter relationship. It doesn't matter that Randy is a sweet, well-meaning guy who sometimes plays Nintendo with the kids in his trailer park. He seriously needs to get it right this time, but at heart, Randy is still very much a child himself. When Cassidy explains that she is unable to step out of her stripper/mother box and start a relationship (in much the same way Randy can't step out of his wrestler box), he essentially has a tantrum...a big self-destructive, drug-fueled, scuzzy, bloody tantrum equal to the sort of show he might have put on in the ring. Unfortunately, unleashing that sort of drama in real life is a really good way to lose it all.

And so we come to the end of the story. Randy decides/discovers that he will never be anything but a wrestler, and it becomes the fatal character flaw that defines all tragedies. What makes the movie compelling is Rourke's nuanced, heartfelt turn as a character very much like himself. Notice, for example, the subtle way that Randy's hearing impairment is handled. Every so often, he'll ask "what?" or repeat what he's heard to make sure he's got it right. He doesn't want to be the old guy with the hearing aid, but at the same time, he's not too proud to address the problem. He's a train wreck and (as his daughter says) a f**k-up, but he's also a sympathetic character. For anyone who's ever put all their eggs in one basket, his story is bound to ring true.