Wild man in the ring

When Sean Penn won the Best ACtor Oscar over Mickey Rourke, I was miffed. I remember Rourke from "Johnny Handsome" and "Angel Heart", and I wanted him to seal the deal on his comeback performance as veteran wrestler Randy "The Ram" Robinson in Darren Aronofsky's "The Wrestler" by taking home gold. He didn't, but he's cast as the villain in the forthcoming "Iron Man" sequel, so I guess things worked out ok for him.

"The Wrestler" is the simplest film Aronofsky has yet made. One American critic referred to the director's style here as "meat and potatoes filmmaking". Looking at this film, it's hard to imagine as from the director of "Requiem for a Dream" (still one the best films of the past century), the experimental "Pi" and the floundering but visually impressive "The Fountain". "The Wrestler" is visually as simple as its protagonist. Randy lives in a trailer (if he can afford the rent) and sometimes parties too hard. He likes a stripper from the local joint, Pam (Marisa Tomei), and has a stenuous (near non-existent) relationship with his daughter (played by Evan Rachel Wood). Randy experiences a moment that forces him to take a hard look at his life and what he's accomplished, and there's the film. It's predictable, and we've seen too many father-daughter face-offs similar to what this film gives us, but Mickey Rourke is breathtaking in giving us a fully fleshed out fighter who's losing big; "The Ram" is emotionally and physically laid bare.

As Pam, the underrated Tomei is the female version of Randy, to an extent, and her scenes with him are sensitively handled. The combination of Rourke and Tomei is what takes "The Wrestler" to the next level (a haunting closing credits number by Bruce Springsteen helps as well). So if the story takes a familiar route, and even if the camera tends to follow Randy too much from behind, it's a memorable viewing experience for its performances and because of the rare look at the mundane mechanics that shape wrestling performances.