My latest post from the Spectator blog:
Like most of the movie-watching population of America, I often wait until Oscar season to watch many of the nominated movies. Although there’s been a lot of buzz about Mickey Rourke’s performance in The Wrestler, especially after securing the Golden Globe, I just sat down to check out the picture last night. Having now just recovered from the wave of depression caused by the viewing, I do have to commend Rourke for a stellar performance.
Despite living a lifestyle mostly followed by complete tools, Rourke is amazingly easy to empathize with. Granted, he’s a coke-sniffing, stripper-boning, deadbeat dad who weekends as a professional wrestler in the most amateur sense of the word. But as we follow Rourke, aka Randy “The Ram” Robinson, through his failed career and failed attempts to connect with the women in his life, his human and vulnerable elements escape easily from his rough and tumble exterior. While Darren Aronofsky’s directing style and the simple yet stunning cinematography certainly help his cause, part of Rourke’s ease in embodying the character is the fact that he is the character. That craggy face is not makeup, my friends.
It would be easy to look back on Randy’s failed attempt at a career, family, and relationships as his own fault. However, Rourke manages, in a few gruff words, to paint Randy as a determined and loveable man coming to terms with his own vulnerability.
Adding to his chances for an Oscar (besides his Golden Globe) are his centrality in the film. The few other characters remain underdeveloped and one-dimensional. Another testament is the lack of background information on Randy. We see him in his washed-up state, without knowledge of how he got there, but can still identify on some level with him. While I have yet to see Milk and can’t compare Rourke’s performance to Sean Penn’s, I can give him kudos for an understated yet powerful performance. Whether it is too understated for the Academy, time will tell.
