The Second Last Movie I Saw

In Dashiell Hammett's famous detective novel The Maltese Falcon, the main character, Sam Spade tells a story about a case he once worked on involving a man named Flitcraft. It is, among other things, essentially a parable about how we are who we are, pretty much no matter what.

Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler is a similar kind of story, about a character who, like the proverbial leopard, cannot change his spots. It's a fairly rich character study, and as the story proceeds, each element lends itself inexorably to the ultimate tragedy of the straitjacket identity the main protagonist has constructed for himself. At the same time, it becomes clear that such a a conclusion can only come from the outside looking in, because it is also apparent that this manufactured identity is the source of whatever pride and joy the protagonist extracts from his mostly down-and-out life. Mickey Rourke has rightly been recognized for giving a stunning performance as the central character, Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a slightly over-the-hill professional wrestler. Even his name-- or pseudonym-- speaks to that idea of a manufactured identity. The character's real name is Robin Radinsky; "The Ram" is almost literally Robin's son, and it's clear that he has lavished more attention on that alter-ego than on his actual daughter, from whom he is estranged. I don't mean to imply that The Ram is an unlikeable figure, just the opposite. What makes the story so compelling is that he is at heart a decent guy, who early on attached himself so completely to an illusion (after all, everyone knows professional wrestling is fake), that his ability to function in-- as prospective girlfriend Cassidy (Marisa Tomei ) puts it-- "the real world," is severely handicapped. As an observer, you want to believe he can break out of the cycle of destructive behaviors, even as it becomes more and more evident that his stake in preserving that identity is all that he has. Tomei's character offers an interesting counterpoint-- a stripper who Ram courts, who desperately wants to dispel the fantasy into which she believes Randy has inserted her, and make him recognize the line between make-believe and true adult responsibility.

Hardly a great or important movie, but a good one extremely well-done, with fine acting and direction. Each scene adds to the overall theme (like Ram buying his daughter a gawdy jacket, or the pre-match rituals, including choreographical discussions, among the wrestlers) without the audience being hammered over the head with their significance through heightened melodrama or heavy-handed music. If you remember Rourke from his breakthrough performance as Boogie in Barry Levinson's Diner (which is my primary memory of his early career), you'll be gratified to see that he hasn't lost that ability to construct a well-rounded, complicated character in the service of a solid story, though it has been a long time since most of us have seen him do it. Marisa Tomei, who in my view is almost always better than the material she's stuck with (most recently in War, Inc.) shows that she's more than equal to the good stuff too.