People you would never meet in your regular life: The Wrestler

This is all about Mickey Rourke’s formidable performance. He plays Randy “The Ram” Robinson, a washed up professional wrestler with little going for him except past glories. Randy has a small, devoted bunch of fans, but he’s broke most of the time, works at a grocery store, hangs out at a strip club, leads a sleazy underbelly kind of life. But you root for this guy anyway; Rourke finds his way into the humanity of the character without pulling heart strings or asking for pity. Co-stars Evan Rachel Wood, who does fine work as Randy’s estranged daughter, and Marisa Tomei, excellent as his stripper friend who is trying to find her way to a “normal” life for herself and her kid. See this one for the performances: the film itself is a tough sell, unless you are a wrestling fan: some of the bouts are brutal, a few people walked out of the show I saw. Fortunately those moments are short lived, and mostly this is a satisfying, if sad, story of struggle and redemption.