Rourke's big comeback

Rating: 9/10 (17 January 2009)

Mickey Rourke, best known for his 1980's movies such as Diner and The Pope of Greenwich Village, 20 years later, after many obvious facial surgeries, has started a road back to stardom. The casting of Rourke in the Wrestler seemed a bit strange, only at first, but once you see the film, one is reminded once again of how great an actor Rourke really was, and still is. Nicholas Cage was supposed to play the role of Randy "Ram" Robinson, but due to budget issues, Aronofsky could not cast him. After seeing the movie, Cage called Aronofsky and told him that "Rourke is the Ram." He gained some muscle for the film and really looks the role of the beat down and washed up professional wrestler. You can read the emotions on his face and in his voice. It makes one feel for the character and reflect on those emotions throughout the film. The directing was superb and tailored to fit Rourke's performance, or perhaps the other way around... that's the beauty of it. A definite friendship between Aronofsky and Rourke was formed in this movie.
Aronofsky first made Pi in 1997, a black and white, daliesque, big "math" movie about a protagonist who is haunted by his own demons as he tries to solve the riddle of the stock market. In Requiem for a Dream (1999), an intense psycho-drama about many types of using addicts and the toll that it takes on their own lives, and the others around them. The ending to the film says it all. The Fountain in 2005 was more of a creative eternal love story seen through beautiful imagery, cgi, and acting. In his most recent, The Wrestler, he takes the old story of the "comeback" (completely paralleled through Rourke's real-life), and turns it into a beautiful, emotional, gut-wrenching film about the loss of hope, and regrets, turned into a seemingly strange redemption in the film's penultimate scene. The entire film is RAW and real. There is a scene toward's the end of the movie where Rourke's character is working as a deli-clerk in a supermarket. One of the customers recognizes him as The Wrestler and he begins to flip out, cutting himself on the meat slicer. Man, the stuff that Randy "The Ram" Robinson went through for his fans--- It's a sad drama, but a beautiful one. One that will probably win an Oscar for Rourke as best leading male actor. I highly recommend this film to anyone.