“While not a truly great film, The Wrestler and the Clown is marvelously warm, inventive and entertaining, with a rich feel for period. It is set against a circus background, but one which is as far removed from the Big Top cliches of its genre as Children of Paradise is from the usual backstage melodrama. In many respects, The Wrestler and the Clown resembles Raoul Walsh's Gentleman Jim or some of Leo McCarey's best films in its rich sense of humor and earthy expansiveness. The screenplay follows the intertwining careers of two famous artists who begin their careers together in the Odessa Circus at the turn of the century--the wrestler Ivan Poddubny and the satiric clown Anatoly Durov.”