Should be at least nominated.

Finally I got to see this movie. It officially came out last year but due to the inadequacy of my local theaters I have not had the chance to see it until this weekend. One of the theaters in my area started showing it this weekend, and that was only because Mickey Rourke is up for an Oscar for best actor and Marisa Tomei is up for best supporting actress. Now it is a crying shame that this film is not up for best picture. This movie is easily one of the best movies I have ever seen. It clearly tells the story without the story getting out of control and that is a very hard thing to do. Most movies that try to show a second chance kinda story fail simply by taking it over the top or more easily disappointing the viewers when the supposed outcome just isn't met. The Wrestler stars Mickey Rourke as Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a former champion wrestler now in the twilight of his career. He spends most days working at a local grocery chain and the weekends wrestling for small or local shows. As his career is threatening to end he turns to his outside life to cope by trying to upgrade his relationship with a stripper played by Marisa Tomei, who welcomes Randy's affections but wont cross the line that separates him from any other customer. Randy also tries to reconcile with his daughter who he walked out on while she was growing up. He tries to replace the hole wrestling left in his heart and he struggles with it at every moment. Easily one of the best movies about second chances and the decisions we make in out lives and how they affect not only ourselves but those around us too. This movie proves that Mickey Rourke is one of the best actors in Hollywood today. I seriously doubt that anyone could portray Randy any better. I also have to give props to Darren Aronofsky who directed the movie. At first I thought I was going to be annoyed throughout the film due to the camera. The movie is shot in many scenes with the camera following the characters as they go along but after the first few minutes, I saw that this actually helped the movie in my opinion, it gives you a very close feel to whats happening and really brings your attention in to the scene. If you haven't seen this yet, go out and hopefully you will be able to find a theater showing it, and see this film. This along with Dark Knight is probably the two best films that came out last year. I give The Wrestler, on the Heat-Scale a score of 10 out of 10.