And the award for Best Actor goes to…The back of Mickey Rourke’s head. Seriously, the back of his head took up like half of the running time. That being said, though, I thought this was a great film. As a fan of wrestling in the 80s, more than a few of my old heroes are dead now due to the same excesses that Rourke grapples with. And Marisa Tomei, wow. That was a, ahem, terrific performance. In terms of Best Actor, I still think Langella was more impressive. Sorry, but asking Mickey Rourke to play a down and out hero hero from the 80s with a drug problem wasn’t exactly asking him to play Hamlet. But I do think the film probably deserved a nom for Best Picture instead of the Reader. Not a single person who has seen that movie thought it was very good, and the reviews weren’t all that great either.
