The Wrestler: Movie Review (2009)

You’ve heard the buzz--and in this case, it’s safe to believe it.

Fresh from the flames of whatever hell he’s been lost to for so many years is Mickey Rourke, who is back in a major way in Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler.”

At the very least, Rourke will be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. And if Sean Penn doesn’t steal that award away from him for his equally powerful performance as Harvey Milk in “Milk,” he might just win it. He’s that good in this movie, at last rising to the full potential some thought he’d never reach due to a long stretch of self-destructive behavior offscreen.

Based on Robert Siegel’s script, “The Wrestler” goes beyond just featuring Rourke in one of 2008’s best performances--it also is one of last year’s best films. The movie delivers a terrific turn by Marisa Tomei, who deserves to be nominated for her supporting role as a stripper on the other side of youth who is trying to secure a life for herself and her 9-year-old son while in the throes of middle age. She’s just as transfixing as Rourke, so free in the role, she loses herself to it, in spite of (or because of) the sheer amount of nudity involved.

This messy tale of a life on the ropes (literally and figuratively) is told cleanly and powerfully, with Aronofsky building tension and emotion not by leaning on gimmicks, but by developing his characters into people we come to care about.

Rourke is Randy “The Ram” Robinson, a sad yet likable guy whose once storied career as a popular wrestler in the 1980s is shown in the montage of print stories, posters and headlines that begin the movie. From this, Aronofsky fades into Randy’s faded present, where he now is wrestling in small halls and grade schools with a group of other hasbeens and those other, younger wrestlers trying to work their way up through the ranks. For a day job, he works the counter at a supermarket deli selling slices of meat and lumps of cold potato salad to customers. At night, assuming he’s paid his rent, his shelter is a busted trailer. Otherwise, he’s sleeping in his van.

To say the least, all of this is a steep drop from Randy’s former life, which once was so hot, companies modeled action figures after him while others made video games about him. He was the main event in the 1980s, the reason people came to wrestling.

But complicating his life now are heart problems due to substance abuse, a bitter daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) so neglected by Randy throughout her life that she wants nothing to do with him now, and his love for Cassidy (Tomei), the stripper who works hard for her lap dances at a sleaze bar called Cheeques. Her real name is Pam and her golden rule is to never to mix her personal life with her work life.

Only when one develops feelings for another person, it isn’t that easy, is it?

Skirting the typical sports movie cliches the film courts isn’t easy, but for the most part, it does so. No character here has it easy, but they keep pushing forward in spite of the obstacles in front of them. If that doesn’t ring true to the current American experience, I’m not sure what does, and that immediacy helps to infuse “The Wrestler” with its unexpected reservoirs of power.

Working to that end is Rourke, who once quit acting for a professional career in boxing. At the time, that decision seemed ludicrous. Now, it seems almost prescient. His athleticism in the ring is the real thing. So is his performance, which is so authentic, it will be the rare person who forgets Randy “The Ram” Robinson.

Grade: A

View the trailer here: