Rourke is amazing

Rating: 10/10 (9 March 2009)

The Wrestler - My Review Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities
To say Mickey Rourke's career has been up and down is a bit of an understatement. Back in the 80's he showed great promise when starring in films like " Nine and a half weeks" ",Rumble Fish and my personal favourite " Angelheart" . The trouble was , Rourke had a self destruct button that he seemed to press far to often . He was hated here in the UK at the time for donating some of his salary to Irish terrorist's the IRA .Directors began to avoid him and the movie roles dried up. He even embarked on a career in Boxing until retiring undefeated after eight fights. After that he seemed to disappear off the face of the earth.
A few years ago a was reading a magazine and i saw a photo of Mickey Rourke and i couldn't believe what i saw. His appearance had changed dramatically because of excessive plastic surgery and seemed to have lost his boyish good looks. Understandably the opportunity to make it big again in acting seemed a million miles away. That is until a director called Darren Aronofsky decided to show faith in him and what a fantastic decision that turned out to be!
Back in the late '80s, Randy "The Ram" Robinson was a headlining professional wrestler. Now, 20 years later, he ekes out a living performing for handfuls of die-hard wrestling fans in high school gyms and community centers around New Jersey.
Estranged from his daughter 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 . 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.
The Wrestler is without doubt one of the best movies i have seen in a while. How , at this years Oscars , it was not nominated for Best Picture or why Mickey Rourke didn't win best performance by an actor in a leading role is beyond me. It's certainly a better than Sean Penn's lead in "Milk". Perhaps he burnt too many bridges in the past amongst the film fraternity and he's now paying the price ?
His portrayal of Randy Robinson is so real. It feels like it could be a documentary it's that real. I loved his honesty and the way he knew he had done wrong in his life but he just wanted to make things good but wrestling was his life and ultimately his downfall. In his own words " I'm an old broken down piece of meat and I deserve to be all alone, I just don't want you to hate me" It's not just the wrestling scenes that Rourke performs that are impressive it's his overall acting. I never ever thought he had that ability in him .
One interesting fact that i found out was that Nic Cage was originally going to be in the lead role of The Wrestler - thank god that never happened.
The Gorgeous Marisa Tomei is superb also and the comparison of her lap dancing career being the same as "The Rams" wrestling career did not go unnoticed. I'm not sure if some of the blood in the wrestling scenes were real but it certainly looked it and director Darren Aronofsky deserves enormous credit for coming up with a thoroughly gripping and entertaining movie and when those final credits roles it left with me wanting more.
10 out of 10