Well, Rourke's performance in "The Wrestler" is that of a lifetime. I don’t always love critics, but they’re right.
December 29, 2008
Mickey Rourke
c/o David Unger - ICM
10250 Constellation Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90067
Dear Mickey -- (310) 550-4000
I loved "The Wrestler" and identify completely with its premise. No, I'm not a hulking figure of a man. I'm actually a slender overeducated Cuban-American writer. I saw "The Wrestler" at a Writers Guild screening and I met Rourke in Miami a while ago at a tented outdoor nightclub in South Beach.
I asked my people to contact his people. My people are loyal. When I say "loyal," it is because F. Scott Fitzgerald once said "there are no second acts in American lives" and they've been trying to get me one. Mickey Rourke is getting his -- good for him! He's an inspiration to us all.
I have actually been working as a substitute teacher to make ends meet during lean times, but lap dancing is not completely out of the question for me at this point -- given the sad state of the economy --LOL. Marisa Tomey was also wonderful as Cassidy the Lapdancer in "The Wrestler," by the way. As for my experiences as a teacher -- unfortunately they're mostly about getting clobbered on the head, vandalized, insulted, burglarized and pelted with the same Hershey's Halloween candy I offered to the kids as treats. So lap dancing, even wrestling, looks pretty tame in comparison. No, unlike The Ram I didn't make bad choices. I had no true choices. But like Ram and Cassidy, I took a I could get with my UCLA honors degree.
Meanwhile, I got a reality email from my producer regarding "The Wrestler's" director –
He's great but really a total auteur . . . he really generates his own projects and doesn't really look at much other material that comes from others . . . and especially if there is no financial reading offer as incentive to get him to look at it. It's a good thought though . . . and if there is a way into him, we can try . . . but do know it's a major long shot. xo,
Well, my producer's assessment notwithstanding, Rourke's performance in "The Wrestler" is that of a lifetime. I don’t always love critics, but they’re right. He appears not to be acting at all, which has been his most affecting quality – always. This is the most moving film I have seen in a long time. I cried for 15 minutes at the end about The Ram's life in the movie and Rourke's unfair past life experiences and my own life in real life -- and I could not even get up from my seat. My producer then called to wish me a Happy 09 and she confided that she had also cried during "The Wrestler" and then again several hours thereafter. I saw an encore of the film at a neighborhood theater last week and I cried again. And this is NOT a chick flick. Nor am I a squeamish chick.
True. I am a big fan of Rourke and loved him when he was very young and cool and sexy. But this is beyond young and cool and sexy -- Rourke has broken through all of that and given us a searing, painfully real performance. A blisteringly real performance. It's better than anything else out there and I pray he will win the Academy Award.
Life is full of surprises and second chances. I think that if Mickey Rourke doesn't walk away with an Oscar soon, there's just no justice in this world -- and if he can lay out his life for the world to see, then, so can I -- so can I. We al ned second changes, don't we?
Migdia Chinea