Another Grab for Glory

Rating: 9/10 (4 July 2012)

I remember years ago going to one of the local wrestling shows in an arena in Queens and the highlight match of the event was between Bob Backlund and the Masked Superstar. This was the kind of show that you see portrayed in The Wrestler, guys who were has beens and never wases in the wrestling game. Only two years earlier that same match topped the Madison Square Garden card of the WWF when Backlund was the heavy weight champion. Neither Backlund or the Masked Superstar looked in the kind of bad physical shape that Mickey Rourke as Randy 'the Ram' Robinson who is about 20 years past his prime.
But like Mountain Rivera in Requiem For A Heavyweight, what else does this man know? What else is he trained to do. Maybe he could have been an athletic director at some high school with a bit of education and be living good with some respect. But he stayed too long and a big part of it is that he can't be without the roar of the crowd even if it's some American Legion Hall Charity event.
With serious health issues Rourke decides to grab for glory once more with a battle just like Bob Backlund had with the Masked Superstar by going against his former rival nemesis the Ayatollah from the eighties albeit in a smaller venue just like what I was at.
Rourke really immerses himself in the character of Randy Robinson you do forget that this is acting, you think you're backstage with all the wrestlers whose bodies take quite a pounding for an exhibit. Rourke's has taken about all it will.
Two female roles are of prominence Marisa Tomei who got a Best Supporting Actress nomination as an aging stripper who has been a bit smarter than Rourke about accepting old age. And Evan Rachel Ward playing Rourke's daughter from a long ago marriage who is totally estranged from him.
But Tomei was lucky to be noticed because The Wrestler is Mickey Rourke's show completely. This is definitely Mickey Rourke's signature role and sad he came up for an Oscar the year Sean Penn also became Harvey Milk in the same way that Rourke became the Ram.