Dot Net reader Denny Kim attended the Toronto International Film Festival showing of "The Wrestler" and filed the following report.

I went with my fiance (not the greatest idea) this morning to one of the theaters showing this film as part of the Toronto International Film Festival. The movie had a start time of 9 a.m., so of course we thought it'd be okay to arrive 30 minutes early. We were wrong. There was a lineup of literally 2,000 people. The movie was shown in a university's film theatre, so it was able to accommodate the massive crowd. It felt good to see such high demand for a wrestling product, although I'm sure people wanted to see Mickey Rourke's performance more so than the subject matter.

Anyway, onto my impressions of the actual film. It was a very graphic, realistic, and depressing tale of a washed up wrestler named Randy "The Ram" Robinson who doesn't know how to deal with life post wrestling other than to remain engaged in it. As for his look, he totally reminded me of that guy from WCW, I think his name was Van Hammer, but his wrestling style was a cross between an old school Jesse Ventura with a somewhat lucha libre style that sort of seemed odd at times due to Rourke being a big man.

As for the synopsis, "The Ram" is about 20 years removed from his prime. He is making the rounds on the indy circuit while still battling his addiction to pain killers, steroids, and the adulation of the crowd. The movie wasn't scripted to be overly dramatic or really play a number on the viewer's emotions in an artificial way. There was nothing cheesy about this film which is such a huge compliment considering how easy it would've been for the director to poke fun at the genre. The entire film was shot documentary style, and so it came across as exactly that, a documentary. My fiance even noted that she kept forgetting it was a film because she too thought it was a documentary.

Anyway, the film explores the life of The Ram and some of his failed relationships (including one with his estranged daughter) and his ability (or lack thereof) to leave wrestling to become a normal citizen by getting a normal job at the local deli. The climax of the film is supposed to be a rematch with "the Ayatollah" (reminiscent of the Iron Sheik) which was 20 years in the making. But that rematch actually takes a backseat to the everyday struggles of Rourke's character such as paying his rent.

Two thoughts. The entire film was incredibly difficult to watch for me personally because I knew that most of what I was seeing on the screen was fact and not fiction. I think a lot of people in the theater saw it as purely fiction, so they were able to watch it without a sense of sadness the way I did. Throughout the hour and 40 minutes, I couldn't shake the sense that I was watching a documentary on Ric Flair. There are many differences between the Nature Boy and Randy "The Ram," however the few similarities were enough for me to cringe while watching certain scenes. Especially considering Naitch opted out of his contract with WWE and may follow a similar path as the Ram's (in terms of the indy circuit).

Mickey Rourke's performance was phenomenal and I still get chills when I reflect back upon it. The only other film I've seen with him in it was Sin City and I can honestly say that he blew that performance out of the water. Roger Ebert wrote that Mickey may win an Oscar for this performance and I wouldn't be surprised if he did.

As for how true the film stayed to wrestling, I'd say the director got it right with lethal accuracy. I wouldn't have been shocked to see Wade Keller and Jason Powell listed as consultants for the film during the credits. Wade, I've been a Torch VIP member for about 2-3 years now and a (Dot Net) member of Jason Powell's for about 1.5 months now and the way you guys depict how things are backstage and from what I've seen in other wrestling documentaries (including Beyond The Mat), reaffirmed to me that the director did his homework. He even showed the Ram preparing a blade backstage (for a juicing spot during the match) and you could even hear the wrestlers calling spots during the match.

I guess that's all I can say about it. It's definitely worth checking out, wrestling fan or not.

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