Rourke’s Comeback

Posted by Movie_Maven

May 25, 2009 |

Still on my post-Oscar kick, I rented “The Wrestler” (2008) with Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei last night. Despite Darren Aronofsky being one of my favorite directors I was initially not that thrilled to see this film but am glad I did.

A lot of people claim this film was slow and boring but it is a character study of Rourke’s and Tomei’s characters which almost parallel each other. They are both “past their prime” and doing whatever they can to survive. In order to fully develop a character, time is necessary and this film is long compared to most (much like “The Reader” - without the requisite time, neither film would have been as good.) If you are looking for an action film, despite some action wrestling scenes within, then I wouldn’t recommend it. If you are looking for a well-acted drama with some true emotion, then by all means see this. Rourke’s parallels to his own character Randy “The Ram” Robinson were plentiful as well and both were able to make the comeback they wanted so much.

Another complaint is the ending. Without giving anything away I will offer one word: perfect.

Rourke’s botched plastic surgery takes away much of his earlier aesthetic appeal (such as in “9 1/2 Weeks“) yet his acting has only improved. The scenes between he and his daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) were so realistic and paralleled many aspects of my personal life that I was close to tears several times. While I wanted to hate his character because of the close connection, I couldn’t help rooting for him as well.

And I do have to say, for a man of 57 he is in some phenomenal shape!! I read that he trained for 2 solid years for this role: a role that the studio allegedly wanted Nicolas Cage to play but that Aronofsky wanted to go to Rourke. I’m glad it did.

That I haven’t seen “Milk” yet, I can’t make any comparisons between Rourke and Sean Penn, but even though he did not win the Oscar, Rourke definitely deserved the nomination, as did Tomei.