Rourke

Rating: 10/10 (6 June 2009)

Watching 'The Wrestler' makes it clear as to why Mickey Rourke was rated so highly at the turn of the nineties. Even with a film-maker of Darren Aronofsky's abilities at the helm, this is Rourke's film. In fact, having seen some Aronofsky's previous work (Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain), it's clear that he's modified his approach to suit the story and Rourke's portrayal of Randy 'The Ram' Robinson, a former wrestling champion reduced to doing gallery stunts for fans. Adopting a unique approach to filming, Aronofsky has the camera literally follow Rourke almost all the time. Over the course of the film, the audience is more or less 'behind' the character. The space he provides for the film's characters to interact recalls 'Requiem for a Dream'; Rourke's attempts to connect with Cassidy (Marisa Tomei) and his daughter Stephanie (Evan Rachel Wood) don't require slices of the past getting a mention in the conversations. Their meetings have a familiar ring, making it seem as though these are not the first of his attempts to reconnect with them.
Marisa Tomei brings a touch of understanding to her role, that of a stripper with a heart. It's been done many a time before but there's a grace to this performance that makes an impression, the way it complements Rourke's interest in her. Which brings me to Rourke's performance. I don't know if it's the eerie parallels that the character graph has with his own career (as a professional boxer and actor), but the amount of vulnerability Rourke projects here goes far beyond the routine 'macho, gruff men with a heart of gold' that Hollywood usually throws up. Rourke really inhabits the character here, willing to give him second chances and essentially presenting alternately, a self-forgiving and unapologetic aspect, that his final act comes across not as a rejection of all things outside the wrestling world but more as an acceptance of the fact that he simply does not know anything else and it is too late to attempt to learn.
On the whole, I've had to reconsider my attitude towards wrestling as a sport. I've always thought of it as a sham and not worth the attention that the other sports deserve. Not that this film makes me want to start watching it with interest but it's broken all misconceptions on my part regarding the people who take part in it. Going by this film alone, wrestlers are sports-persons in their own right.