Mickey Rourke's Resurrection

Rating: 8/10 (16 March 2009)

Rarely does a talent like Mickey Rourke get a second chance at stardom. As the star of popular 80s films such as "The Pope of Greenwich Village" and "Nine ½ Weeks," Rourke was on the verge of super-stardom when addiction to drugs and alcohol left him a "broken down piece of meat." But we don't want to hate Mickey, we love Mickey. He stole the show in Sin City a few years back but now he has completely returned to top form. We are looking at the Hollywood version of Lazarus.
The Wrestler is one of the most gripping and emotional films of the past few years  it's brutally honest and very realistic in how it tackles its subject matter. The film is so realistic it feels like a true documentary on underground wrestling. The camera follows Rourke's character, Randy "The Ram" Robinson, inside and outside the ring and stays close at all times. He may be playing a wrestler here but this is not WWE. There's no championship belt, the life he leads is by no means glamorous. He gets locked out of his trailer for not paying rent, he has a struggling love relationship with a stripper by night./mother by day and the only family he has, his daughter, doesn't even want to talk to him.
Rourke is the star here, he makes the film great. The raw intensity in his emotions connects with everyone in the theater and those who appreciate good art will be left breathless by his performance. The Ram is a gladiator, a gentle giant, trying to reclaim the success of his past. Maybe it's because it mirrors Mickey's own resurrection that we find his character so intriguing, but nonetheless the man bears his soul in this very entertaining film. There is such an emotional complexity to his character, by the last frames of the picture  the audience feels like they've been apart of something special.