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The Wrestler | 2008 | R | - 8.7.8

After suffering a heart attack, an aging professional wrestler (Mickey Rourke) must come to terms with the fact that he'll have to stop wrestling or he will die. Also with Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood and Judah Friedlander. Directed by Darren Aronofsky. [1:45]

SEX/NUDITY 8 - A man and a woman have sex in a public restroom: we see her bent over a sink with her bare breast exposed, the man thrusts from behind and we see his bare legs, hip and abdomen while she moans loudly and climaxes.
 Several scenes take place in a strip club where women dance around poles wearing thong underwear (bare buttocks and bare breasts are visible, sometimes with nipple piercings). We see a dancer performing lap dances for men in a couple of scenes (thrusting and rubbing on the men's lap). A stripper dances for several men in a private room and one man makes crude sexual remarks.
 A man watches a pornographic video on a computer (we see a woman wearing bra and panties and what looks like a man between her legs performing oral sex).
 We see a man's bare buttocks when he injects himself with a drug. We see a man's bare buttocks when his hospital gown hangs open in the back. A man wearing only jockey shorts climbs into a tanning bed. We see several wrestlers bare-chested and wearing spandex pants (both short and long). Women wear low-cut tops that reveal cleavage in several scenes. We see a poster in a man's bathroom several times, which shows a woman's bare breasts and abdomen. A man shows a woman several scars on his body (we see bare back and chest).
 A man and a woman kiss.
 A man talks about "hot and horny housewives" shopping in a grocery store. A man talks to a woman about his daughter and his suspicions that she is gay.

VIOLENCE/GORE 7 - A man shoves his hand into a deli meat slicer (we see blood spurt, he yells and blood ends up on his face); customers are upset by the sight.
 A wrestler tapes razor blade pieces to his hands and cuts himself on the forehead during a wrestling match (we see him press a blade into his flesh and blood streams down his forehead and face).
 A wrestling match shows two men breaking a large piece of glass and then falling into the shards (we see the back of one of the wrestlers with many pieces of glass in his skin and blood).
 A wrestling match shows men spraying each other with bug spray, one man staples himself in the head and chest with a staple gun and then staples his opponent (we see staples in the skin and blood), one wrestler pokes a fork in another man's hand, and we see barb wire cutting into a wrestler's skin when he pulls it out (there's blood and the wrestler grimaces). We see glass shrapnel and staples being removed from a man's back after a match and he moans (we see blood on his skin and at the wound sites).
 There are several wrestling matches shown with one wrestler clothes-lining the other, one jumping from the ropes onto the other, one striking the other with a chair, slamming each other to the mat, etc. A wrestler climbs on the ropes of the ring, prepares to jump on his opponent, and it is implied that he has a heart attack and dies but we do not see anything more. During a match a wrestler strikes another wrestler with a flagpole, then holds it across his throat, and the other wrestler gets the pole away from him, breaks it over his knee and throws it into the crowd.
 A man shoves several men and forces them to leave a strip club after they make crude remarks to a dancer.
 A man collapses to the floor holding his chest (we see him in the hospital with oxygen and he is given a sedative when he becomes agitated). A man falls to his knees and holds his chest when he has chest pain while jogging.
 A young woman yells at her father in a couple of scenes, throws things at him and kicks him out of her house in one scene. A man and a woman argue. A doctor tells a man that he almost died from a heart attack. Crowds cheer at wrestling matches and chant "Kill 'em." A man talks about using a staple gun during a wrestling match and that they don't hurt so much going in, but they hurt coming out.
 A man hits himself with an aluminum roasting pan (it makes a loud noise and it crumples), and a man hits himself in the head with a frying pan (it clangs). A man pretends to be angry and wrestles with children who have woken him up. We see wrestlers in several scenes choreographing their matches.
 A man pulls a bandage off his chest and reveals a large, dark scar. We see a photo of a man with a bloody nose. A man shows a woman several scars on his body.
 A man vomits (we see goo, hear splatter and we see particles on his mouth).
 A man dyes his hair, sprays himself with self-tanner and shaves his armpits.

LANGUAGE 8 - About 31 F-words, 3 sexual references, 13 scatological terms, 19 anatomical terms, 5 mild obscenities, name-calling (crack head, juice heads, loser), 7 religious profanities, 1 religious exclamation.

SUBSTANCE USE - A man snorts cocaine, a man injects himself in the buttock with a drug, and a man sells another man drugs and asks him if he wants Viagra or cocaine (the man declines the offer). A man takes a prescription medication with a beer, people drink alcohol in several strip club scenes, and a man and a woman drink beer. A man takes prescription medication.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Professional wrestling, aging, estranged fathers, has-beens, success, failure, abandonment.

MESSAGE - Professional wrestlers take a beating.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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