The Return of the King

Rating: 9/10 (13 January 2009)

http://eattheblinds.blogspot.com/
Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler is probably the best American film of 2008 and in it, Mickey Rourke delivers perhaps the best performance of 2008. Significantly, The Wrestler announces two important things: 1) Aronofsky has put behind him his film student fixation with gimmicky camera and editing techniques in favor of honest, straight forward film-making and 2) Mickey Rourke is back from the dead.
In case you forgot (or are too young to remember), Rourke was once Hollywood's golden boy, a pretty face with more talent than any of his peers. At the time, the comparisons to Brando were inevitable, but they were also justified - Rourke was an exceptional talent. Just like Brando, Rourke's demons got the worse of him and the drugs, drink, and inexplicable detour into prize fighting, devastated both the man and his once promising career.
In The Wrestler, Rourke plays Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a character so achingly human, you can't resist caring for, crying for and cheering for him. Credit this empathy to Rourke who invests everything in his portrayal of Ram. There's little doubt why Aronofsky cast Rourke as Ram - simply put, Rourke is Ram. And just like Ram, Rourke isn't capable of mailing in a performance; Ram sacrifices everything for his adoring fan, just as Rourke is willing to put everything on table to make The Ram real. When Ram tearfully acknowledges to his estranged daughter (Rachel Evan Wood) he screwed up, he hurt people, he hurt himself and that he regrets the price he's paid for his mistakes, it is obvious Rourke is plumbing the depths of his own despair.
Rourke's ravaged face is a testament to how badly this man has had the sh## kicked out of him in both the boxing ring and in life. This face isn't the creation of a prosthetics or make- up artist, this is the face of a man with a past, with pain and, tragically, with very few people left to love him. This too is The Ram and this verisimilitude is precisely why The Wrestler is destined to be an American classic. It is a surprisingly tender, unpredictable and heart-felt emotional ride about a fallen idol from the 1980s, starring a fallen idol from the 1980s. With luck, this personal piece of work will be as cathartic to Rourke as it is for his fans. If so, welcome back Mickey...you've been missed.