With his hearing aid and graying hair, pro wrestler Randy “The Ram” Robinson may be past his prime, but Mickey Rourke has never been better than he is in the title role of Darren Aronofsky’s seriocomic, existentialist wrestling drama.

When a brush with mortality relegates him to working a supermarket deli counter, The Ram tries to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) and settle down with his on-again, off-again stripper girlfriend (an excellent Marisa Tomei). But like any old vaudevillian, he pines for the roar of the crowd, especially when the prospect of a high-profile rematch with an old nemesis presents itself.

Owing more to John Osborne’s The Entertainer than to pugilistic hallmarks like Raging Bull and Fat City, this is a poignant, thoroughly unexpected and occasionally ultra-violent movie about performance, self-worth and the satisfying thwack of a folding chair to the back.