The Wrestler

In the minds of many critics, Mickey Rourke has become the new Golden Boy of the movies. In reviewing Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler, which opens today (Wednesday) in New York and Los Angeles, Claudia Puig in USA Today writes, "Mickey Rourke wallops us with a damaged hero who is full of pathos and poignant contradictions." Rafer Guzm?n in Newsday comments, "Rourke has become a foregone conclusion for an Oscar nomination." Kyle Smith in the New York Post describes one high point of the movie which he calls, "Rourke's Oscar scene, except the whole movie is his Oscar scene." Rourke's appeal is obviously spiked by the fact that the movie's story and the actor's own life run parallel. It's about a washed-up wrestler who makes a comeback late in life. As Elizabeth Weitzman comments in the New York Daily News: "Everybody loves a comeback, and Rourke is poised on the edge of a big one." And Richard Corliss concludes his review of the movie in Time magazine by writing, "The man from the past has a future again." Praise for the film is not unanimous. Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times writes: "The Wrestler doesn't add up. It's constructed with great care around a lead performance that is everything it could possibly be, but the picture itself is off-putting and disappointing."

nice movie, made so by rourke's performance. Rourke did well, because in a way that movie describes his current state, from a superstar.... to an actor rarely seen , with very few roles...plus his change in physical appearance. Nice.