Warrior

When I first saw the trailer for this film, I thought that it was going to be another version of The Fighter which I thoroughly enjoyed, but I had a feeling that it might be a 'light' version. I was wrong.

The film is about two brothers who have taken very different paths in life; Tommy (Tom Hardy) is a troubled former marine and Brendan (Joel Edgerton) is a high school teacher with a family. One thing they have in common is an intense dislike of their father Paddy (Nick Nolte) who is a former alcoholic and a born-again Christian. Neither man has had much to do with him in many years.

Both of the brothers are facing financial difficulties and turn to cage-fighting as a way to solve their problems. Tommy asks his father to help train him (his father trained the boys in wrestling as youngsters) on the condition that he doesn't try to reconcile with him. Whilst Brendan asks a friend to train him after having been suspended from his job for participating in a cage-fight.

As Tommy had returned to Paddy's life, Paddy tries to reach out to Brendan in the hope of building some kind of relationship with him as well, but he is rebuffed.

Unbeknownst to them, they have both entered an elimination cage-fighting tournament, where there is a $5m winner-takes-all purse. The brothers go through their respective fights and inevitably end up facing each other in the final. During the course of the fights, you find out more about Tommy's story and why he is participating in the tournament.

Surprisingly, this was a very moving film with fantastic performances from the three main characters. Nolte shows how great he can be, Hardy continues his recent meteoric rise with a stunning performance and Edgerton combines strength and vulnerability with real poise.

Unusually for a fighting film, the number of clichés were kept to the absolute minimum and the only lull was during the training scenes (something I've never really seen the point of in a film) and although you know where the story is going, the final scenes are poignant and somewhat unexpected.

The fight scenes are convincing and brilliantly choreographed. You wince at each thud on the canvas and with each contact made. When it comes to the final fight, you find it more and more difficult to choose who you want to win.

This is the real beauty of the film, it starts out with very clear 'good guy' and 'bad guy' roles and during the course of the film, those roles are turned upside down. This, alongside the incredible performances, is what makes this a different type of fighting film.

Verdict: In my opinion, Warrior is unlikely to be a contender when it comes to awards season—except, possibly, for Nolte as best supporting actor. Despite this, it is a thoroughly entertaining, thoughtful and touching film. Excellent performances all-round and a fairly decent story made Warrior very enjoyable and I look forward to seeing what Hardy and Edgerton move on to in the future.