The Wrestler
Cast: Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Rachel Evan Wood
Dir: Darren Aronofsky
Rating: 5/5
Mickey Rourke was one of cinema's biggest stars during the eighties before he let his personal life take over the headlines, eventually quitting acting and returning to his teenage love of boxing.
Despite making a return to film in the late nineties it seemed that the best of his years were behind him and a great talent had been thrown away and wasted.
But how wrong we all were as Rourke makes a triumphant return as down and out wrestler Randy 'The Ram' Robinson', desperately trying to hold on to the memories of former glories having lost everything else.
Back in the late '80s, Randy "The Ram" Robinson (Mickey Rourke) was a headlining professional wrestler. Now, twenty years later, he ekes out a living performing for handfuls of diehard wrestling fans in high school gyms and community centres around New Jersey.
Estranged from his daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) and unable to sustain any real relationships, Randy lives for the thrill of the show and the adoration of his fans.
However, a heart attack forces him into retirement. As his sense of identity starts to slip away, he begins to evaluate the state of his life, trying to reconnect with his daughter, and strikes up a blossoming romance with an aging stripper (Marisa Tomei).
Yet all this cannot compare to the allure of the ring and passion for his art, which threatens to pull Randy "The Ram" back into his world of wrestling and he puts everything on the line for one last fight.
To say that Rourke puts in the performance of his career is one hell of an understatement he is quite simply superb as his performance carries the whole movie. A stubborn and broken man who has destroyed every relationship he ever had, except that with his adoring public, really does tug at the heart strings and you can't help but feel sorry for the fighter who just cannot let go.
Aronofsky doesn't ridicule or make fun of the amateur wrestling circuit showing in great, and often uncomfortable detail, just how far these men push themselves for so little money. And the fight scenes are perhaps some of the most powerful as Randy tries to hold on to the past and the ring is the only place where he feels a success.
Aronofsky's direction is very up close and personal and gives a real insight into Robinson's very lonely existence and is a real departure for Aronofsky who, after the strangeness of The Fountain, has his feet planted in reality.
The script is also superb but all of this is overshadowed by Rourke's knockout performance that really does revive his career as he brings real-life experience to the character as you see aspects of Rourke in Randy.
There are also excellent performances from both Marisa Tomei as stripper Pam, however she looks amazing throughout which would be my only criticism, and from Rachel Evan Wood as Randy's daughter who just wants a relationship with her father who has let her down time and time again.
And it's Rourke's scenes with Wood that really are the most poignant as he apologises to her for leaving her as he tries to rebuild his life after retiring from the one thing that he loves, naturally his promises to her don't last long.
Rourke's nomination for Best Actor really was well and truly deserved and all the hype surrounding his performance is justified. The Wrestler is the movie of 2009 so far.
The Wrestler is out on DVD from 1st June
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in Mickey Rourke