Mickey Balboa

Rating: 10/10 (20 February 2009)

Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler is, alongside Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, the most surprising English-language filmic achievement of 2008: shot on a below-average budget (so low the film's leading man wasn't paid at all), completed just two days before its premiere at a prestigious film festival (Venice) where Aronofsky had been torn apart by most critics two years earlier (thanks to the misunderstood and underrated The Fountain), it went on to win the Golden Lion (and cause a bit of a controversy among the jury members since festival regulations prevented from giving Mickey Rourke the Best Actor award as well) and become a critical darling. And there's good reason for that: despite all the violence and overall sadness, The Wrestler is a celebration of the underdog that even puts the more than respectable Rocky to shame. It's also, to date, Aronofsky's best film.
The story is a very classic and simple one: the protagonist, Randy "The Ram" Robinson (Rourke) is a washed-up wrestling champion (the film opens with newspapers and voice-overs commenting on his triumphs, then cuts to him sitting on a chair and reveals those victories are actually twenty years old). He manages to barely get to the end of the month (he lives in a trailer park owned by one Lenny, portrayed by Aronofsky regular Mark Margolis) by working at a supermarket in his native New Jersey and occasionally participating in a few celebratory matches for the sake of nostalgia. Obviously, this isn't enough, and after an almost fatal heart attack he decides it's time to re-evaluate his friendship with stripper Cassidy (Marisa Tomei) and get back in touch with his estranged daughter Stephanie (Evan Rachel Wood). However, old habits die hard, and when he's asked to to fight his old opponent Ayatollah to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of his biggest triumph, he will have to make a tough choice.
After a trilogy of sorts that encouraged visual and thematic weirdness (Pi, Requiem for a Dream and The Fountain), it's refreshing to see Aronofsky deal with a traditional story (then again, he didn't write the script). He does, however, pay homage to his first feature by returning to Pi's gritty, hand-held, in-your-face approach: there are lots of scenes where the camera just follows Randy as if we were watching a documentary (or a Gus Van Sant movie), and the energy and violence that are conveyed in the fight scenes (which aren't so "fake" as professional wrestling is usually described) feel real and visceral. This "raw" style is most likely a sign of the director's feelings for the project: he really wanted to do it, and shot it fast and cheap because he knew you don't necessarily need Harvey Weinstein's backing - which is good for Oscar campaigning and little else - in order to shell out a masterpiece. The Wrestler is a textbook case of passion project: it comes from the heart, not the money-driven mind.
And if that isn't enough, there's one more thing to consider: Aronofsky deliberately turned down a bigger budget because that would have prevented him from casting Mickey Rourke. He's always had a good hand with actors, and the heartfelt performances given by Tomei (rightfully nominated for an Oscar) and Wood prove this beyond any doubt, but miscasting the leading role would have meant destroying the picture's artistic credibility. Fortunately, Rourke was as passionate about the project as his director, and truly delivers the effort of a lifetime. To say the part was tailor-made for him is an under statement: Rourke's tears, sweat and blood (he really injured himself most of the time, including the famous stunt with the razor blade) are the actor's redemption for all past troubles and poor choices, both in his career and his life. Sin City proved he still had talent, but this is the real comeback for someone most people thought was unable to return to, let alone surpass, former heights. That the producers even considered casting Nicolas Cage as Randy sounds like a sick joke more than anything else: this is Rourke's long-awaited moment in the spotlight, and when he says "This is where I belong", it is impossible not to cheer for him. And that is what truly makes The Wrestler a masterwork.