TORONTO -- In "The Wrestler," Mickey Rourke could be speaking for himself. An aging, ailing wrestler two decades past his days of action figures and headlines, Randy "The Ram" Robinson turns to the crowd and says, "The only ones who are gonna tell me I'm through are you people here."

And Rourke isn't through, turning in one of the best acting performances of the festival as a man whose body and spirit have taken a pounding. He reaches out to his estranged daughter -- Evan Rachel Wood -- and tries to be more than a customer to a stripper played by Marisa Tomei (by golly she takes off her clothes ... again).

Rourke, who sounds and inhabits a body like Sylvester Stallone's during his "Rocky" days but with long blond hair and fake tan, makes Randy a hugely sympathetic character. The film, directed by Darren Aronofsky, takes moviegoers behind the scenes of wrestling matches where the entertainers plot out their moves and look after one another. The ending is somewhat predictable, but the film closes with "The Wrestler," a song written and performed by Bruce Springsteen.

A recent showing of the film was filled, with every one of the 580 seats occupied. The movie just won a big prize at the Venice Film Festival and Variety reports that Fox Searchlight won an all-night bidding war for the movie, paying a reported $4 million for the U.S. rights, which means it will arrive in theaters at some point. And Rourke's performance is worthy of an Oscar nomination.

First Published: September 10, 2008, 8:00 a.m.