To say first it is Rourke who had the best performance. I say that with the success of Penn actually. If you look at the career of each person, both having their ups and downs personally and professionally it is Penn who obviously has the more stable career with less to loose. However in terms of raw talent and screen appeal it is Rourke who has the upper hand. One detail that makes me say Rourke had the better performance is the fact that some scenes in The Wrestler were totally off the cuff and real world spontaneity, like the scene in the diner for instance. Those were real customers placing real orders, very cool. Also Rourke had to give the performance of his life for the sake of his life, it was his one and only chance to revive his career so it was not mere acting well for Rourke but it was more a matter of life and death. And he pulled it off, again his raw talent and charisma is what gave him the ability to do this. If Rourke was in a safe place would he have taken the role in the first place and make it was he did make it? Rourke's presence was not based on the story, the director or other details; it was simply him making the decision that he was going to make it work, and he did. I love both Penn and Rourke for their talents, both of them are favorite actors and I love to see their movies, but on this day it is Rourke who gave the better performance.
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I had hoped Mick "Ram Jams" Penn at the oscars, he deserved it just as much as Ledger did for supporting - those two roles were magic on screen. Rourke's Randy the Ram is a character for the ages and only Mick could have given that role so much heart. He made the character truly come to life and no one did a better job than him!

But I guess his pre-Oscars mouth-lashing did him in... sample the following:

After his December 23 appearance on David Letterman, Rourke told someone backstage that he was surprised that so many people seemed to think that Penn was his Oscar competition since “I’m not even sure he’ll get a nomination.”

On December 28, a Los Angeles entertainment honcho shared a text message that Rourke had sent him: “Look, Sean's an old friend of mine and i didnt buy his performance at all — though he did an average pretend acting like he was gay; besides he's one of the most homophobic people i kno” [sic]
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I think Sean Penn is one of our most talented actors. However, there is no competition in my mind--Mickey Rourke deserved the Oscar and every other award they could possibly hand out. Actors like Sean Penn are rare in Hollywood, but actors like Mickey Rourke come around once in a lifetime.
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I favor Mickey Rourke, but it's a toss up. Penn is an actor playing an actual person. Rourke is an actor playing a character actually like himself.
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I think Sean Penn deserved his award and I even picked him to win on the voting question!
Mickey Rourke is a good actor but I could watch Penn act 24 hours a day! Who can forget I am Sam?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EROTbDCr5ag&feature=related
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"actors like Mickey Rourke come around once in a lifetime"

This is so very true. Penn is very talented and technically brilliant. His performance in Milk was spot on. But that's just it: it was such a polished performance, there was no real edge. I did miss something 'dirty', honest, _real_ - the kind Mickey Rourke delivers in Wrestler. I would never deny Penn's talent as an actor, he is very good indeed. But Mickey Rourke took my breat away and threw himself in the role with intensity I have never seen before, in any movie.

As for those remarks before the Oscars; well, here we have two very controversial characters and they both have had their share of being a loudmouth ;)
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