Starring: Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood
Director: Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain)
Running Time: 1 hr 45 min
Release Date: December 17, 2008
Budget: $7 million
Critics’ Thumbs Up: 89%
“An emotional smackdown…” Dan Jolin, Empire Magazine
“…off-putting and disappointing.” Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
As a past his prime wrestler clinging to his former glory days, there’s more to Randy “The Ram” Robinson (Rourke) than his long blonde hair, over-bulged muscles, and shiny green tights suggest. Once he’s forced to quit wrestling, he’s caught in an emotional tug of war between the world outside the ring rejecting him and vice versa as he rebuilds relationships with his estranged daughter (Wood) and an indifferent stripper friend (Tomei). Aronofsky took a huge risk dropping star Nicolas Cage and sacrificing the movie’s budget to cast Rourke, yet he brings heart, weariness, and resonance to a role that eerily parallels his own life.
Available now on DVD
