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quietearth [Film Festival 11.15.08] movie review drama

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Year: 2008
Release date: Unknown
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Writer: Robert D. Siegel
IMDB: link
Trailer: link
Review by: quietearth
Rating: 5.5 out of 10

The introduction to the first film I saw at the Denver Film Festival was predicated by a little speech on how this was the "resurrection" of Mickey Rourke, so I would like to take this space to state that Rourke has ALWAYS been awesome, and that any idea of a rebirth is only in the minds of the pretentious and the Hollywood tools. That said, even Rourke and Tomei, as fantastic as they both were, could not save this flick, it was that boring. Aronofsky has stepped so far outside the field of genre film which made him famous he has now made a movie any of a few hundred other talented directors could make. Simply put, it was nothing special.


Don't get me wrong, as I said both Rourke and Tomei are incredible and are perfect for the film, Mickey with his creepy aged putty mask of a face and Marisa with her aging sexuality. It was the storyline, that of a man, a wrestler, who was a persona but not a person, who had overextended his life with medication, but whose interaction with everything was ambiguous at best. While this ambiguity didn't detract from the story, it didn't help either.

The story goes that Randy "The Ram" (Rourke) is 20 years past his wrestling prime (the 80's) and is still going. He's having trouble making ends meet and he doesn't really seem to have any friends. His inner dialog is non-existent to us, only his actions are shown by the camera as the film is shot documentary style. This brought another level of reality to the film, but again, it couldn't fix the story. He has a daughter he knows nothing about, and attempts to create a relationship with her. "The Ram" visits his stripper "friend" Cassidy (Tomei) at the strip club, and all the while he tries quietly to make some connection with her as this seems to be his only attempt at true humanity, but this isn't a tale of redemption, it's a tale of loss or maybe just an ending that was always the same.

There was this feeling throughout the beginning of the film that things were going to get worse, and of course, they did. From there, the tone changed and, while this was set by the camera work and not by the music like most films, it was generally predictable. Overall, there was nothing wrong with the narrative, but like I said, it was just boring! I wouldn't recommend this film (sorry Rourke fans) and furthermore, I implore Aronofsky to drop any crazy idea of a Robocop remake and go back to making weirdness. Please!

Oh and one more thing, Denver Film Fest folks, what was with all the Phil Collins music before the screening?!

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Anonymous (3 years ago) Reply

Wonderful review, reminded me of Circle Jerks song "Defamation Innuendo".


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