The Five Tool Movie Review: The Wrestler

Took in this intriguing little movie tonight, which stars Mickey Rourke in the role of a lifetime as an aging wrestler trying to make it to one last return to glory while managing the wreck that is his life. Rourke is simply mesmerizing, Marisa Tomei is courageous and effective as the stripper he's involved with, and the stuntwork and gritty realism of the behind the stage scenes is just spot-on.

About the highest praise that I can give to a movie at this point in my dotage is this: I haven't seen this movie before. Rourke deserves the accolades he's getting, and director Darren Aronofsky does a dozen small, clever and useful things, but the single best thing he does is let Rourke work. See it if you want to see a great actor at work -- and can take a good amount of gore, naturally. It is wrestling, after all.