Every once in awhile the real-life drama that follows an actor around actually informs and heightens a character on the screen, and like Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man Mickey Rourke’s wild and reckless life took the battered Randy “The Ram” Robinson in The Wrestler to a place only he could. The beating Mickey Rourke took as a boxer during his self-imposed Hollywood exile damaged his face in way that make-up would never fix and it makes the character pop off the screen. And the real world drama didn’t end there because the tragedies I watched Randy go through made me think of all the wrestlers I loved when I was growing up and I can’t help but wonder how Jake “The Snake” Roberts and Greg “The Hammer” Valentine are doing on the small circuits now that the WWE has left them behind.
It is amazing that Darren Aronofsky followed up the fantasy-romance The Fountain with a brutal wrestling faux-biopic, but it should be easy for him to sell himself as the director of any project he wants in the future after nailing movies that are so strikingly different. Although, The Fountain didn’t get the kind of money or critical praise that was poured over The Wrestler (Best Actor, Actress, Director, Movie nominations at the Academy Awards). What I loved about the approach that Aronofsky took was that he played most of the drama straight in a near documentary style and he filled the movie with plenty of minutia about how these wrestling matches are staged and organized. As a recovering Wrestling addict it was as fascinating to see the backstage dealings as it was to delve into the trials of Randy “The Ram” Robinson’s life.
I can’t say enough about Mickey Rourke’s performance which was painfully touching and surprisingly empowering. Somehow his character was able to hold his head up while he works in a hairnet at Acme, or when he returns to a trailer that is bolted shut since he failed to make his rent, or when he pulls staples out of his body after a horrifying “Extreme” wrestling match. Matching Rourke’s intensity was both Evan Rachel Wood, who plays his estranged daughter, and Marisa Tomei as an aging stripper who may be Randy’s only friend or he might just be her last regular client. Marisa Tomei continues to stack her resume with solid performances and I don’t think she ever gets enough credit, and she may have shut the book on the clichéd role of the sad stripper with a lovely nuanced performance. Evan Rachel Wood only gets a few scenes to strut her stuff and she was impressive as the wounded Daughter who can’t help but hope for more from her failure of a father. Keep an eye out during the rest of the film for some good and surprising cameos including Judah Friedlander, Todd Barry and a few classic wrestling stars.
The DVD includes the Bruce Springsteen video from the film and a lengthy and insightful “Within the Ring” behind the scenes featurette. Once again I will whine about the lack of an Audio Commentary, but the “Within the Ring” feature was long enough to highlight the key parts of the production to my satisfaction. Although, few of the actors, including Mickey Rourke show up behind the scenes, which was surprising given the publicity work they did before the release and since they did get award season love.
