Clearly Rourke, whose own face had to be reconstructed after the years of battering it received during his wilderness years as a professional boxer, is perfectly cast as the battle scarred, fading fighter Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a bit like how they got Christopher Reeve to star in that pointless remake of Rear Window:

"Hey Chris, seeing as you're already in a wheelchair…"

This could set a dangerous precedent. Matt Dillon is just a severe case of late-developing cerebral palsy away from the career comeback of a lifetime in 'Hawking: The Movie'.

But while Rourke sympathetically embodies the pathetic, battered loser that is The Ram, as he battles ill health and attempts to assemble some kind of personal life, 'The Wrestler' follows a well-worn path of 'one last time for glory' movie storylines and you'll see the end coming as soon as the Doctors tell him he shouldn't fight anymore.

It's undeniably a well made film- the elaborate and bloody fight scenes are more convincing than many genuine bouts - but it's ultimately a boring film, giving you little reason to care about his chemically engorged, barbed-wire pocked carcass, nor his failed romance with an ageing stripper.

'The Wrestler' does beg the question, why do so many Americans still pay to watch old, perma-tanned men in tights hitting each other with chairs? Although, now we come to write it down, that does sound a lot more entertaining than the film.

3 pretend-metal-trays-to-the-head out of 5