While playing a fictional character, Rourke lends a semi-autobiographical flare to his performance, drawing on his own experiences as a boxer.
2008 was a year that saw some successful comebacks mounted by folks like Robert Downey Jr., and in the case of Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler, Mickey Rourke.
There are moments when you can literally see his heart breaking on screen, and Aronofsky captures all of this beautifully in one of the relatively warmest and most poignant films of his career.
The latter film tells the story of Rourke’s Randy “The Ram” Robinson, a wrestler who tries to rescue himself from the depths of personal and professional obscurity, in the name of making up with his daughter and being able to stand proud once again.