By Zac Taylor
Editor-in-Chief

Mickey Rourke is a smash hit, and administers a few of his own, in director Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler. Randy “The Ram” Robinson (Rourke) is a washed up WWE Professional Wrestler that has trouble paying rent. Having to work at a grocery store in suburban New Jersey to make ends meet, Randy still hits the mat at low budget venues, high schools, and promo events for under the table cash. The younger, up-and-coming wrestlers admire the Ram, as he was king of the ring in 1980s, and even starred in a Pro Wrestling Nintendo video game. A fake tan, bleached blond hair, and a lifetime of staged “Ram Jams” (his signature move) highlight an aging brawny stature that is on the verge of losing the only thing he knows how to do.

His estranged daughter (Rachel Evan Wood) resents him, and a stripper named Cassidy (Marisa Tomei) has to remind him that he’s “just a customer.” Meanwhile, a handful of fans are the only light that give his dreary life a shred of relevance. The broken down fighter ingests all kinds of pharmaceuticals, which wreak havoc on his crumbling frame. After a sadomasochistic match with real life hardcore brawler the Necro Butcher (Dylan Summers), in which the two blast one another with a staple gun, glass, and barb wire, the Ram suffers a heart attack backstage, and wakes up in the hospital after undergoing bypass surgery. Realizing he needs a change in his life, he tries to reconnect with his daughter, and kindle a romance with his favorite stripper Cassidy. All the while, he tries desperately to cope with the loss of his only accolade of being the Ram, and tempts himself to return to the ring, even though it may cost him his life.

The tone of this tale of an All-American punching bag is somewhere between the later Rocky films and Million Dollar Baby in both its barbaric self-destruction, stubborn pursuit of glory, and brazen heroism. “It’s about a guy who wants to be loved,” Director Darren Aronofsky said. “And he’s loved by his audience and then when he can’t be loved by them anymore, he looks for love from these two different women. And when he can’t make that work, he goes back to the only place where he knows it works.” Rourke and Tomei have such an engaging chemistry together, as both of their characters use their bodies as their careers, and cope with aging, and loneliness. The film hits theatres December 21st.