Warrior

While some may see Warrior as a way for Tom Hardy to build up his street cred before The Dark Knight Rises, it’s actually a pretty gritty look at an estranged family tied together by mixed martial arts. The similarities to last year’s Oscar nominee, The Fighter may be too much for the general movie-going public to get behind, but Warrior has a longer leash due to its fictional premise.

Hardy plays a Marine who returns to his native Pittsburgh and picks up fighting after years away from it. He employees his once abusive father (Nick Nolte) as his trainer, but never forgives him for the past offenses. Meanwhile, on the other side of Pennsylvania, Nolte’s other son (Joel Edgerton) is a school teacher who returns to MMA in an attempt to win enough money to keep his house, which is facing foreclosure and to provide for his wife (Jennifer Morrison) and two daughters.

With the exception of the fight announcers, who don’t really count, the acting in the film is near flawless. Nolte provides the most depth as he is able to range from the most subtle nervous tick all the way to over the top theatrics. The sympathy the audience feels for the character is truly a measure of this performance. It’s quite painful to watch the way he is treated. That doesn’t mean Edgerton and Hardy’s characters are unlikeable, it’s quite the contrary. They just have good reason to be so brutal. But both the leads do very well with the unyielding script. Picking who does better is almost like predicting the winner of their fight in the movie, it could go either way.

Even the supporting characters go above and beyond. Kevin Dunn, who plays Edgerton’s principle, is so convincing while watching his colleague’s fight on TV, the audience can feel the nerves he has. Then there’s Morrison, who I feared would provide a cheesy reproduction of the Adrian moment from Rocky. The writer never gives in to that temptation though, even when we want it to. She does quite well.

So I think it’s quite clear this is a character (and actor) driven film. There is also a lot of actual fighting though. While I personally have no problem with that, I can understand why some would. In addition, I know it’s fun to use the gritty hand held camera look that Warrior often employs, however the slow inconsistent focusing really brings the audience out of the story. But that can’t take away from the movies impact as a good, sad, inspiring, happy movie. It’s just chock full of adjectives. (9.0 out of 10)