Offical website
Blu-rays, DVDs & more
eBay affliate link
Art of the Movies
Buy posters on MoviePoster.com
IMDb
The Wrestler movie stills
Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes
Ben Lyons, At the Movies: This is a film that you have got to see. You won't be disappointed. Read more
A.O. Scott, New York Times: The Wrestler shows that, in both movies and wrestling, the line between reality and play-acting may be less clear than we assume. Read more
David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: This is a case where an actor makes the difference. Read more
J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The famously downbeat Aronofsky captures the grimy texture of life at the bummed-out bottom of the wrestling circuit, but the center of the movie is Rourke's unimpeachable performance as a man who exults in self-punishment. Read more
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Director, Darren Aronofsky, and the writer, Robert D. Siegel, have turned the story of this washed-up faux gladiator into a film of authentic beauty and commanding consequence. Read more
Mark Rahner, Seattle Times: Mickey Rourke delivers such an unexpectedly moving, charming and physically impressive performance that he deserves some other award than Guy Who Gets Asked 'What The Hell Happened To You?' Most Often. Read more
Noel Murray, AV Club: The movie feeds off Rourke, who plays a genuinely decent guy who never lets his dawning self-awareness interfere with his responsibility to give the fans a show. Read more
Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: The Wrestler isn't a perfect movie, but Rourke's performance gives it the impact of an atomic elbow drop. Read more
Ty Burr, Boston Globe: The Wrestler is about the seductions of superficiality and the dull ache of living beyond one's moment. It stares with compassion at the man pinned on the mat and wonders how he'll ever get out of this one. Read more
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: It is a pleasure to see Rourke finesse this amalgamation of The Champ, Marty, Rocky and a dozen other movies to his supreme advantage. Read more
Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: Predictable as it is, this sad, strong beast of a film keeps us pinned to the mat with the strength of its compassion and the overpowering force of its central performance. Read more
Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: I would much rather have seen a movie about the devastations of the real Mickey Rourke. By comparison, the Ram seems like a stand-in -- a screenwriter's pseudo-hard-boiled concoction. Read more
Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: The Wrestler has the intimacy of a fly-on-the-wall documentary. No stunt men were harmed -- or used -- in the fight sequences. But the drama makes for vibrant art. Read more
Tom Long, Detroit News: With uncommon intelligence and brutal honesty, The Wrestler examines the cost, and need, of battle. Read more
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: The Wrestler is like Rocky made by the Scorsese of Mean Streets. It's the rare movie fairy tale that's also a bravura work of art. Read more
Tom Maurstad, Dallas Morning News: The movie presses too hard and too often, but the performances are strong enough to withstand the melodramatic impulses, and the themes of isolation and self-destructiveness are too sharply realized to be trivialized. Read more
Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: It's a hell of a performance -- and a hellish one -- in a film that isn't entirely sure what to do with it. Read more
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: While the director was essential in collaborating with Rourke to create that memorable performance, it remains real work in an essentially fake film, and there is nothing anyone can do about that. Read more
Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: It's a wonderful, career-reviving performance, and you can't imagine the movie without him. Welcome back, Mickey. Read more
David Ansen, Newsweek: To say this is a great comeback for an actor whose talent was exceeded only by his self-destructiveness is obvious. Read more
Anthony Lane, New Yorker: What Rourke offers us, in short, is not just a comeback performance but something much rarer: a rounded, raddled portrait of a good man. Read more
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Rourke and Tomei bring a tender, lived-in honesty to their sad roles. Read more
Kyle Smith, New York Post: The Wrestler offers something to pretty much everyone in the audience. Much like The Sopranos, it creates a world that might make you feel utterly at home or exhilarated by strange horrors. Maybe both. Read more
Rex Reed, New York Observer: Like Jack Palance in Requiem for a Heavyweight, the man you're watching not only has the role of a lifetime; he seems to be living it, too. The result is the most brutally honest performance of the year. Read more
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: The chance to play that poignant confusion is the real prize that Rourke and Tomei earn in The Wrestler. Read more
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: If this ragged but near-brilliant movie is about a guy trying to resurrect his career, so too is the performance at its heart. Read more
James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Mickey Rourke, who has been flying under the radar for nearly two decades, makes this a comeback to remember. Read more
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Mickey Rourke plays the battered, broke, lonely hero, Randy ('The Ram') Robinson. This is the performance of his lifetime, will win him a nomination, may win him the Oscar. Read more
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Aronofsky pulls all the usual strings in The Wrestler. But in the end the movie works, maybe because the best things about it are things that Aronfsky isn't even conscious of. Read more
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler is one of the all-time exalted examples of an actor meeting a character and of each redeeming the other. Read more
Dana Stevens, Slate: The scruffy, almost accidental beauty of The Wrestler comes as even more of a surprise than the greatness of Mickey Rourke's performance. Read more
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The Wrestler is strong, confident filmmaking. It shows you everything you need to know, and never whispers in your ear what you're supposed to feel about it. Read more
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: The excesses are easy to forgive, both for the humour and charisma of Rourke's outsized performance and Aronofsky's canny low-key direction, which make for a combination that is irresistible. Read more
Peter Howell, Toronto Star: The Wrestler is suffused with sadness, yet also the wonder of a spirit that refuses to be snuffed out, and it's a lesson to us all. Read more
Tom Huddlestone, Time Out: Aronofsky directs with unfussy candour, alternating between the intensity of the wrestling and the drabness of Randy's 'real' life. Read more
Christopher Orr, The New Republic: Rourke, in a role that could have invited outsized characterization, instead offers modesty and understatement. This small performance, in a small film, is by far the biggest of his career. Read more
Claudia Puig, USA Today: It's no Raging Bull, more like Rocky shot with a handheld camera. But Rourke's wounded tough guy is undeniably captivating. He smacks you in the gut and wrenches your heart. Read more
Todd McCarthy, Variety: Rourke creates a galvanizing, humorous, deeply moving portrait that instantly takes its place among the great, iconic screen performances. Read more
J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Present in every scene, if not each shot, Rourke gives a tremendously physical performance that The Wrestler essentially exists to document. Read more
John Anderson, Washington Post: Imagining someone other than the beatifically battered Mickey Rourke in the title role of The Wrestler would be like picturing someone other than John Malkovich in Being John Malkovich. Read more