In Hargitay's defense, I think the guy taking her hostage had just gotten shot by Vincent Spano; I'd make that face too. On the other hand, she could have just read yet another script in which a member of the Stabler family is kidnapped, arrested, or pinned in a wrecked car while delivering a baby. Because: seriously.
I waited to watch The Wrestler, because I did want to see it right when it came out, but the press surrounding Mickey Rourke's performance quickly grew to a height that dwarfed the film itself — not just the second-chance-Charlie pieces, but the pieces from 25 years ago to which those pieces referred, the self-congratulatory mentions of how, once upon a time, that same publication had compared Rourke to a young Brando.
Even if the Brando comparison is one I'd consider compelling — and it isn't, as I think Brando himself is over-praised — I couldn't get on board with that over-praise either. I've never thought that Rourke is bad; he's good at what he's asked to do, usually, even excellent on occasion. But you have to look at what he's asked to do, or what he's actually doing. Not a lot, often, and when you put what Rourke does next to amped-up gabbling (Nicolas Cage and Vincent Spano, Rumble Fish; Eric Roberts, The Pope of Greenwich Village) or pouty posing/peering through eyelashes (Kim Basinger, 9 ½ Weeks), it's going to look a lot more considered and professional than it is. Even when it's very good, it's relative to the crap surrounding it.
It's very good here. Did it deserve the Oscar? I didn't see Milk, so I can't speak to that role, but I like it when an actor doesn't feel he has to "show the work" and be in motion every second he's onscreen, and Rourke did marvelous, understated work in The Wrestler — but I think Richard Jenkins did the same sort of thing just as well in The Visitor.
Rourke also benefited from strong writing and production design. The shots of Randy with his blond topknot and his hearing aid, puttering through the dollar store, have a narrative depth of field that's nice, and part of that is Rourke and the way he has the character walk. Most of it, though, is the production values, or shot set-ups like the one from behind Randy at the fan event, panning across these other busted dudes with their VHS tapes and their war wounds, the low ceiling pressing them down. The movie itself doesn't put a foot wrong — well, the scene where he quits the Acme is a bit tired, but not to the point of bothering me, really — and neither does Rourke, but I have to wonder how much of that is the casting.
Rourke does have one bit of business he does that nobody in film does better, though, and I hope I can explain it. He does it when Randy wants to go over the moves with the Ayatollah, and the Ayatollah blows him off all "you're the face, I'm the heel, next," and Rourke makes a face that says, "…So you're that guy. Okay then." He does it in Diner when Bagel mentions Boogie's father and Boogie says, "Look, uh, leave my father out of it."