Oh my sweet Micky Rourke. This is a film that I love. I love this film because Mickie Rourke is fuckin awesome. It's hard to go over a film scene by scene in any great reviewable fashion but when you do that with this film you see Rourke giving maybe the best performance in cinema ever. He lives and breathes dankness and regret in every scene, if not with his words or body then with his eyes or his slouch. The breakdown is always there even if hidden beneath a veneer of smile.
If you've seen Penn Jillete review the movie he talks about how in every scene you can feel New Jersey, you can almost taste the dilapidated parking lots and the odd scent that a cold New Jersey day gives you, with the dyeing leaves and drab air that always makes you feel like you're standing right next to the air vent of a cleaners, just chilled down. And he is so fucking right.
If the convention scene had been bigger and thus more realistic I probably would of given the movie a perfect rating.
Overlooked and under publicized is Evan Rachel Wood. She takes a role that probably isn't given enough time and with her eyes makes it every bit as big as it would have been if we had 10 extra minutes of screen time with her. In the same way Rourke echos breakdown with his body and face, Wood echoes heartbreak with her eyes. The periless and soul ripping sadness of wanting to believe in a father you know you shouldn't and then later coming to an emotionally explosive realization that you simply can't, is really remarkable.
The ending is marvelous. She is right there and she is real, but he knows that real doesn't work, not for him, no matter how much he may want it. Fade to black. Movie Of The Year.
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