Director Darren Aronofsky is rapidly becoming a firm favourite here at Smell the Cult HQ. Helmsman of the utterly brilliant Requiem for a Dream and the stupendously good Black Swan, here he is slightly less intense, but I'd still like to smother him in cheese and pop him under the grill for five minutes, all the same.
The plot:
Mickey Rourke, looking more like Hellboy with each passing year, plays Randy 'The Ram' Robinson, a fading Pro-Wrestler whose best years are way behind him. Working part time in a supermarket, he still plies his real trade at weekends, though at small town halls rather than capacity stadia. When a heart attack sees his wrestling career brought to an abrupt end, Randy tries to patch up his life outside the ring; he wants a stripper to become his long term partner, he wants to work full time behind the deli counter at the supermarket, and he wants to make amends with his estranged daughter.
Inevitably, after years living hard and playing hard, Randy finds it difficult to re-enter the real world, and it's only a matter of time before the call of the ring lures him back, no matter the fact that it will probably kill him.
And it's a really touching affair.
Rourke is superbly cast and, I suspect, the role was written with him very much in mind.
With Marisa Tomei providing excellent support as stripper Cassidy - a remarkably brave role to take on for such an established actress, and one she was duly rewarded with an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, along with Rourke's Best Actor nomination - and some real pathos, this is a drama that is powerful and provocative, though it never quite reaches the stirring heights of intensity of some of Aronofsky's other works.
Great film, though.
Very good indeed.
4 out of 5
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