I actually think this is one of Aronofsky's best films. I just love the blunt realism of this movie. Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei gove great performances. Contrasting this film with his other works "The Wrestler" shows that he does not need to rely on strange or "extreme" subject-matter to make an interesting film.
"I want to die young in order to be a beautiful corpse" is one of the key assertions of some writers of the Romantic literary movement. If Novalis died at the age of 29 and Heinrich Von Kleist at 34, on the contrary Victor Hugo died at the highly respectable age of 83. Some people don't manage to separate their ideal aspirations from real life, some do. Mickey Rourke, in the Wrestler, didn't retire at the peak of his career so he has to suffer now the ever extending gap betwen his glorious past and the man he has become. The awareness of this situation will change him into the Romantic hero he deserved to be. Masterpiece.
When it's true it's very true but when it tries too hard it rings completely false. Interestingly it's the relationship between Ram and Cassidy that doesn't work. The real showcase here is Rourke. He's astoundingly nuanced and knowing in his portrayal of a lost man. It's a solid film without being a great one.
On re-watching parts of the this again, I find it more emotionally resonating and sparsely beautiful than RFAD. Aronofsky really needs to let go (as he does here, to an extent). To quote Bahrani: "I realize when you leave certain gaps, it allows space for the viewer to enter the film.”
