Has anyone seen my stapler?Part of the draw for The Wrestler is how close the storyline tracks
Rourke’s real life rollercoaster. After his rise to fame in the ’80s,
followed by his boxing stint and subsequent weird-guy tabloid filler,
Mickey had been reduced to bad movies and bit parts. There are a few in
which he truly shined, such as Marv in Sin City, and stunning
performances in The Pledge, Spin, Animal Factory and Get Carter. In The
Wrestler he finally puts all his cards on the table, hanging himself
out like a skinned deer for us to gawk at. It’s the proverbial car
wreck and we’re unable to avert our eyes.
The plot of The Wrestler is
nothing new. It follows a familiar comeback formula, but it shines by
turning convention on its head. We shudder at the thought of Rourke’s
battered character Randy “The Ram” Robinson stepping in the ring again
for a few wrinkled dollar bills and nearly cheer when he contemplates
retirement. But the gritty realism, honest performances and tight
storytelling drive this moving character study. We know Randy’s time
has come and gone, but he doesn’t. The parallels to Rourke begin
immediately – physically battered, broken down, beat up, empty and
drained, he still clings to some kind of hope for redemption, or at
least another shot.
We find The Ram living in a trailer or sleeping in his van, working in a supermarket to pay the bills, while wrestling on the weekends at the American Legion. Punch-drunk and wallowing in solitude, Ram can’t change, but the wrestling ring is becoming a cage. After a near-death experience, he tries to put his life together.
Getting in touch with his inner beast, Rourke dominates 99.9 percent of the screen time. Only a few times does The Ram resemble Rourke. Gone are the chiseled features of yester year, replaced with a battered and bloated visage. He lifts weights, colors his hair, tans, and tosses back his long blond mane to adjust his hearing aid. And Rourke nails every stroke, painting The Ram with all the right flourishes.
Marisa Tomei plays Cassidy (the stripper Ram falls for) and tears up the screen with a multidimensional take on another soul who is hanging on a little too long, earning jeers as well as tips from some of her younger clients. Evan Rachel Wood appears as The Ram’s almost-grown daughter, Stephanie, who wants to despise her father for abandoning her to chase his long gone glory. All three characters are bruised, emotionally scarred, or tainted by life’s cruel twists of fate. They all have problems seemingly too enormous to deal with.
Not one performance slips by; they all surge with heartrending pain from way, way down deep. My only gripe was that the daughter/father relationship at times feels contrived, but then again it allows some of the best acting in the movie. No matter how incredulous the script, the knockout, cliché-free performances are all worthy of the praise and attention, so any flaws are easily overlooked.
Director Darren Aronofsky shows an impressive style that’s a departure from his previous films (Pi, Requiem for a Dream). Shooting in cinema vérité, he does a bang-up job with the hand-held camera, following characters with long un-edited shots, often focusing on Rourke’s top-knot/ponytail. Aronofsky also employs a soundtrack that’s laden with heavy metal glam rock, emphasizing Ram’s hold on the past.
Simple yet powerful, The Wrestler is drenched in pathos and bathed in heartbreak, but somehow it manages to rise above it all. After seeing this movie I thought I could easily go about my day, but Randy The Ram remained in my head. Rourke as the puffy behemoth steeped in shame has done the impossible. He creates a modern day Jake LaMotta, with a depth and honesty that borders on haunting. It’s a helluva performance. Long live Mickey Rourke.
The Wrestler ★★★★✩
Starring Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood. Directed by Darren Aronofsky. Rated R.
This article appears in Jan 29 – Feb 4, 2009.
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Salvo said it all with this one. Spend an afternoon with Rourke inside your head (along with Guns ‘n Roses)!
I saw “The Wrestler” last weekend. I agree with Jeremy — it stays with you long after you leave the theater. Hell of a movie and hell of an acting job by Rourke.
Footnote: The scenes at the dilapidated seaside resort were especially poignant for me, maybe because I recognized the setting as Asbury Park, NJ, a place where my parents and I had a lot of fun when I was a child and which, like Rourke and his character, has fallen on hard and sad times.
Footnote to the footnote: According to Wikipedia Asbury Park is undergoing a renaissance, thanks in part to its growing popularity with gays and lesbians. Good to hear.