The Wrestler

Mickey Rourke was the comeback story of 2008 for his bighearted portrait of Randy "The Ram" Robinson, just an ordinary guy with an unusual job, in Darren Aronofsky's moving tale of a former wrestling superstar years past his prime and toiling away in the lowest rungs of the wrestling entertainment ladder, New Jersey branch. Covered in war scars from stunts gone bad and miscalculated moves, he's a generous veteran treated like wrestling royalty by his colleagues and a hero by his fans, while making ends meet as a day laborer. His mortality sends him to try to connect with the aging stripper he loves (Marisa Tomei, equally vulnerable but more wary) and reconnect with the daughter he all but abandoned (Evan Rachel Wood). Aronofsky gives the blue-collar world of trailer parks, strip clubs and '80s flashback culture a feeling of authenticity, and Rourke makes the Ram a flesh-and-blood character of natural generosity who just needs to be loved, and the only way he knows how to get it is in front of a crowd.

Features a music video for Bruce Springsteen's theme song (which was unaccountably not nominated for an Oscar), and the 42-minute "Within the Ring," a superior behind-the-scenes documentary directed with a rough-around-the-edges sensibility befitting both the film and the culture of its characters. It's also a very egalitarian production, spreading the coverage between the stars, the supporting cast, the wrestling community and key members of the production staff. A Blu-ray edition is also due out, but it did not arrive in time for review.