Can crowd-pleaser 'The Wrestler' fight its way to a best picture nod?

Ever since Darren Aronofsky's "The Wrestler" premiered and won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in September, award pundits such as myself have postulated that Mickey Rourke — who gives a majestic performance as the eponymous character and has a remarkable personal-comeback narrative to boot — will be a player in this year's Oscar race. What we did not appreciate until recently, though, is the increasing possibility that the film could show up in other categories as well.

"The Wrestler" (see its new trailer) generated considerable buzz out of Venice and Toronto, but not even distributor Fox Searchlight anticipated the tremendous reception it has received stateside. The film has, thus far, been shown to actors, directors, writers, editors and composers, with producers and cinematographers scheduled to get a look shortly. According to my sources, overflow turnout at these industry screenings necessitated the scheduling of an additional wave of them, and standing ovations at virtually every showing, unusually high audience retention during those followed by Q&As and the absence of five obvious candidates for best picture prompted studio bigwigs to green-light an all-encompassing award's campaign for the film.

The new strategy calls for a full-fledged effort on behalf of not just Rourke for best actor, but also the film for best picture, Aronofsky for best director, Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood for best supporting actress and Bruce Springsteen for best song — "The Boss" has a catchy little tune that plays over the closing credits. Accordingly, Aronofsky and Tomei have been dispatched on a press tour of major cities; Wood is doing press on both coasts; and Rourke is glad-handing and working the phones out of New York, where he is currently filming his next movie "13."

If anyone still has any doubt about Searchlight's intentions for "The Wrestler," a studio rep tells me look no further than the movie's final poster. Rourke's name is above the title, of course, but directly below it and in a size not much smaller are both of his co-stars', while his director's is featured prominently in the quote about the film.

Rourke  — whose career-best performance as a tough guy with a fractured soul has generated comparisons in reviews and at Q&As to Marlon Brando in "On the Waterfront" (1954), Paul Newman in "The Hustler" (1961), and Robert De Niro in "Raging Bull" (1980)  — is apparently the leading cheerleader of the new approach. From the start, he has been vocal about how indebted he is to Aranofsky for offering him the chance to prove he could still act; he has developed a particularly close friendship with Wood, who he has come to regard as a daughter-figure (which is why he recently lashed out about the insinuation that he was romantically involved with her, before apologizing for his poor choice of words); and he is generally grateful for the career revival that this film seems to have offered him. I was there as he was leaving the "Milk" after-party (see, he's not a homophobe!) in New York on Tuesday night, when someone said to him, "Mickey, I love 'The Wrestler'!" His response, "I do too."

(Photo courtesy Fox Searchlight)

Comments

[Robert Hamer]

Where, exactly, has this news been reported before, Kris?

[MK]

Yes, Rourke's performance is iconic. He is a unique actor -- there is a reason why his talent has the respect of DeNiro, Coppala, Depp, Keteil, Penn, Springsteen and all. 15 years in therapy has resurrected Mickey Rourke. Best Actor 2008.

[RDM]

I was glad to see Rourke speak up for Evan Rachel Wood, during Perez Hilton's smear postings on his pathetic blog.
Not only is Rourke a very close friend of Wood, he also told me after the Wrestler screening at the NY Film festival that he considers Evan to be the most talented young actress he has worked with.

[Diablo]

Mickey is carrying for all of us-even before Hollywood decided to let him up from his Quasimoto moniker so they could wring more dough from his talents-go man go-he is my Dimaggio!