he Film Festival continues with Mickey Rourke, spandex, and a shitload of bleached hair.

The Wrestler
Directed by Darren Aronofsky
Starring Mickey Rourke, Marissa Tomei, Evan Rachael Wood
Coming to Toronto hot on the heals of winning the top prize at the Venice Film Festival, The Wrestler is sure to be this year’s “little movie that could.” Never in a million years did I expect there to be a film about a WWF-style professional wrestler that could be described with words like “subtle,” “touching,” or “true.” But here is a film that is all of those things and more. Mickey Rourke plays a former wrestling star who was on top of the world in the 80s but now lives in a trailer park and lets amateur wrestlers attack him with barbed wire and broken glass for money. Rourke delivers a monster of a performance that completely humanizes Randy “The Ram” Robinson and also ranks as the finest work he’s ever done.

The film is directed by Darren Aronofsky of Requiem For A Dream fame, which suggests that the movie is filled with endless MTV rapid-fire montages and lines like “ass to ass,” but The Wrestler is actually quite a quiet movie. Aronofsky is smart enough to know that his camera pyrotechnics aren’t needed for this simple story and simply shoots the movie with handheld cameras. The movie isn’t style-less, but it’s shockingly subdued for this particular filmmaker. Perhaps the biggest surprise is how consistently funny the movie is. The world of amateur professional wrestling is undeniably pathetic and former Onion scribe Robert Siegel milks all the comic potential he can out of the material without sacrificing any of the human tragedy (cult comic Todd Barry gets most of the funny lines as Rourke’s Deli manager). This isn’t a huge epic that will overwhelm audiences with its greatness, but a small and rewarding movie that should surprise audiences and make a splash during awards season. At this point in the year, Mickey Rourke and Benicio Del Toro are the actors to beat in the Oscar race. It’ll take some damn impressive acting to top these two.