Review: The Wrestler (2008)

[Mark R. Leeper]

                         THE WRESTLER
                (a film review by Mark R. Leeper)

     CAPSULE: Boxer/actor Mickey Rourke makes an acting
     comeback as a professional wrestler trying to retire
     and come back to his personal life.  Like his
     character, Rourke has been scarred by his years of
     fighting but can still make a pretty good grab for
     the viewer's empathy.  Darren Aronofsky tells a
     solid character-driven drama with simplicity and
     impact.  Rating: high +2 (-4 to +4) or 8/10

Barry Levinson's 1982 film DINER was one of those films that had an
all-star cast, only nobody knew it yet.  The film was a start for
such familiar faces as Kevin Bacon, Steve Gutenberg, Ellen Barkin,
Daniel Stern, and Paul Reiser.  All these became familiar faces.
One other new face was Mickey Rourke, but that face no longer even
exists.  Rourke balanced careers as an actor and a prize-winning
boxer.  Sadly, that boyish Irish face was rearranged too many times
in the ring.  Today it looks more like a battlefield.  Rourke's
face is now only occasionally recognizable as that of the same
person.  But he is still acting.  In his new film THE WRESTLER,
directed by Darren Aronofsky, he looks more like some foe of Conan
the Barbarian.  He wears his blond hair beyond shoulder length and
has a face that looks like it has been used to slam doors.  He
plays a professional wrestler who knows he has to get out of the
business that he has allowed to be his only life for far too long.
Here for the first time Aronofsky gives us his first work that can
be considered such a personal story.

Randy "the Ram" Robinson is a household name to wrestling fans.
Twenty years ago he was at the top of his game.  Under the credits
we see wrestling magazines singing his praises.  That twenty-year-
old acclaim is what he lives on these days. He trades off of that
fame in the wrestling circuit making barely enough money to pay his
rent in a trailer park.  The fights he fights are scripted morality
plays with winners, losers, injuries, and moves all planned in
advance.  People remember that years ago he fought and won in a
classic fight against another wrestler called The Ayatollah.  Randy
knows he has just enough name left that in the game he will get
just the money to survive.  His one shot at real money he will get
if he agrees to a promoted rematch with The Ayatollah.  He is going
to cash that final chip in when he has a heart attack.  He keeps
secret the knowledge that he can never fight again.  So it is time
to retire.  But does he have a life to retire to?

His best friend is Pam, a stripper at a club where Randy goes.
Marisa Tomei, who unfailingly gives a good performance film after
film, plays Pam.  Here she has just the right balance of street
vulgarity and delicacy.  Randy wants Pam's help to try to win back
Stephanie (Evan Rachel Wood) the daughter he always ignored when
his fighting career came first.  All this could have been cliche
but Rourke and Tomei give us a very tender relationship.  His
effort to bond with his daughter is equally poignant.  Aronofsky's
REQUIEM FOR A DREAM was about drug addiction.  This film is about a
man addicted to the cheers of the fans.  Randy's best moments have
all been in front of screaming crowds and he is facing giving that
up.  Aronofsky's only false move is the very final shot, which
verges over onto melodrama.

Mickey Rourke has what it takes to grab an audience.  But how many
roles are there going to come his way for his particular character
type?  Like his character he may have just one more shot.  I rate
THE WRESTLER a high +2 on the -4 to +4 scale or 8/10

My question is this: Popular actor Mark Margolis (who may be
remembered as Alberto, the Latin assassin in SCARFACE) is fourth
billed as the character Lenny.  He is a favorite of Aronofsky, and
I expected to see him.  Was his part cut?  I completely missed
seeing him in the film.

Film Credits: <http://us.imdb.com/title/tt1125849/>


					Mark R. Leeper
					mleeper at optonline.net
					Copyright 2008 Mark R. Leeper