I MAKE MOVIE REVIEW-The Wrestler

Forget the shocking comeback story of Mickey Rourke-the real shocker is that the unthinkable physical and, for that matter, emotional requirements of this role didn't kill him. Rourke plays Randy "The Ram", a washed-up ex-wrestler who blasts Guns N' Roses, gets off on lap dances and steroids, and saves his own memorabilia to show off at low-budget "legend signings". With his in-the-ring career cut short by heart trouble, Randy must try to piece together the life he destroyed in his pre-fame years, taking odd jobs at deli counters, reconnecting with his estranged daughter (Evan Rachel Wood, fearless as always), and attempting to settle down with a stripper (Marisa Tomei, who, despite not looking the part, acts the hell out of it). Add Randy's freakish addiction to pain and his sharply mounting insecurities, and you've got one of the most complex roles created in recent memory. Better yet, Rourke nails it. His own beaten-down face, with creases so deep they look like proverbial tire tracks, fits Randy's personality perfectly, as does his quavery voice. It's not an in your face performance-like the movie, it's a slow-burner, building and building until it all explodes in a shattering meltdown. As the camera locks onto him like a hunter chasing it's prey, Rourke explodes, literally bleeding his heart out as we watch with horror and nailing every little nuance. This scene alone is enough to secure "The Wrestler" a spot in movie immortality. The thing is, there are plenty more great scenes-the one where Rourke plays video games with a tween resident of his trailer park, the hilarious back-and-forth chat with his deli manager, and, of course, the final scene, where the sport in all its tragic beauty calls Rourke, and he makes a choice that is both insanely suicidal and selflessly redemptive-a choice that, like the rest of the movie, is writ clear as day on the face of one of our greatest actors. Sure, we see a little more of Randy's tough life than we need to (his drug habits are shown in needlessly long takes that are nearly impossible to stomach), and occasionally there are some flubs in logic, but when a movie is this blatantly ambitious, when a film wears it's flawed heart on it's bloodsoaked sleeve, I think it's worth a watch-maybe even worth some Oscar-season honors. A-