Rourke is The Wrestler

Rating: 8/10 (16 September 2010)

The Wrestler is a movie with a lot of heart. Director Darren Aronofsky really touched gold when he decided to choose Mickey Rourke to play Randy the Ram Robinson. Rourke is excellent in this role as he plays a once famous wrestler who begins to be forgotten with his old age, but who decides to continue doing the only thing he knew how to do: wrestle. The excesses of his life has left him a very lonely person with very few friends outside the wrestling arena and who has a daughter with whom he hasn't spoken with in ages. He begins to befriend a stripper played by Marisa Tomei, who at first sees him as a customer but truly has feelings for him. Tomei is a great supportive character in this movie and does a great job and she truly deserved the Oscar nomination. She convinces The Ram to get in touch with her daughter, played equally brilliantly by Evan Rachel Wood (and I must add she got snubbed from a nomination as her work was equally as good as Tomei-s). The dialogue in the movie is great, the loneliness and sadness The Ram is going through is transmitted in a very realistic fashion without the music in the background trying to play with the audiences mood. There are several interesting dialogues like the one Randy says he is just an old broken down piece of meat, the conversations he has with his daughter are very moving and feel real. The struggle he goes through to decide whether he should try to make it in life away from the ring or follow his dream of getting back to the top of his game despite his old age and sickness is what this movie is all about. He has given all his life to wresting and does not know how to survive without it even though the sport has seemed to turn its back on him. Overall this a very touching movie that should be seen by all Mickey Rourke fans and probably has already so I shouldn't have really had to point that out at all.