“The Wrestler,” the latest film from director Darren Aronofsky (“Requiem for a Dream,” “The Fountain”) explores this fine line between reality and fiction. Professional wrestling is often disregarded as fake because the details of the fight, including the victor, are usually determined in advance by the wrestlers themselves. But the beating the wrestlers take in the ring is often painfully real, as this film makes sure to emphasize. A particularly brutal match involving barbed wire, shattered glass and a staple gun will quickly dispel any doubts that these men do not subject themselves to excruciating pain in order to entertain their rabid fan base.
The heart and soul of “The Wrestler” is Randy “The Ram” Robinson, played to perfection by Mickey Rourke. Once one of the sport’s biggest stars, Randy now struggles to pay the rent for his trailer, desperately clinging on to his career by performing in wrestling’s lowest circuits at community centers and high school gymnasiums. Twenty years have passed since the climax of Randy’s stardom, a match against his archrival “The Ayatollah” at Madison Square Garden. The opportunity for a rematch gives Randy hopes of returning to the top. Meanwhile, Randy attempts to reconnect with his estranged daughter Stephanie (Evan Rachel Wood) and pursues a relationship with Cassidy, one of the employees at his local strip joint (Marisa Tomei).
These side plots are a bit predictable but are saved by the enormous talents of Wood and Tomei. In particular, Cassidy’s stripper-with-a-heart-of-gold routine ends up taking a tiresome turn, but Tomei elevates the character above the script. Randy and Cassidy, both performers of a sort, serve as perfect foils for each other. For Cassidy, reality is her life off-stage, the life where she has a nine year-old son and hopes of earning enough cash to move to a new condo. For Randy, his only reality is inside the ring, feeling the sharp pain from a cut above his eye as the crowd cheers his name. The two seem to be vaguely aware of this difference, sparking a fascination with each other that grows into affection. Of course, Tomei and Rourke are both actors performing roles of their own, adding an extra layer of poignancy to their scenes together.
The most captivating parts of the film, however, are the scenes that juxtapose Randy’s life in wrestling with the truth outside of the ring. One of the best of these is a wonderful tracking shot, the camera following just behind Rourke as he makes his way through the back rooms of the supermarket where he works weekdays. The shot directly mirrors his entrance into the ring, and the sound of a crowd chanting his name emphasizes how far he has fallen as he steps behind the deli counter. Randy almost physically cringes every time somebody calls him by his true name, Robin Ramsinski, preferring to be addressed by his stage name. But perhaps the most moving scene is one in which Randy attends a signing event for retired wrestling stars. Looking around the near-empty room at Randy’s peers, the camera focuses on one wrestler’s cane, another’s wheelchair. These men are ignored, unwanted, forgotten, broken-down shadows of their former selves. The expression on Randy’s face speaks volumes: the fear that he will become no better than these men, and the recognition that it’s too late to do anything about it.
What makes “The Wrestler” so particularly haunting is the way it so closely reflects the actual events of Mickey Rourke’s life. In the early ’80s, Rourke was one of the fastest-rising stars in Hollywood, a talented and handsome young man with an unquestionably bright future in acting. Drugs and charges of domestic abuse derailed his success, and a brief stint in professional boxing from 1991 to 1995 left his face battered and swollen. For the past decade, he managed to obtain small supporting roles in films but still struggled with bankruptcy. Randy’s comeback is Rourke’s as well. Very few actors ever get an opportunity to give such a personal performance, and Rourke clearly threw every inch of the pain, fear and frustration in his body into the role. I can’t even imagine how much of a disaster this film would have been if they’d stuck with the original casting choice of Nicolas Cage.
“The Wrestler” is, simply, one of the most captivating convergences of player and part ever to come out of Hollywood. It is only right that Mickey Rourke received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor a few weeks ago (Marisa Tomei joined him with a Best Supporting Actress nomination), and I for one will offer little objection if he wins. Any performer so willing to bare their emotions to their audience deserves to be remembered.