Rated: PG-13
Directed by: Gavin O'Connor
Warrior tells the story of Brendan Conlon (Joel Edgerton), a former UFC fighter and struggling family man, and his brother Tommy Riordan(Tom Hardy, an ex-military soldier who was a wrestling prodigy in high school. They both register in Sparta, an MMA tournament in which the top sixteen fighters in the country compete to win five million dollars. Brendan, who is about to have his house taken by the bank, is doing the competition solely for his family, while Tommy does it to give the earnings away to the family of his dead friend. On top of this, there is their relationship with their father, played by Nick Nolte, who used to be a drunkard and a terrible father, with the only redeeming quality about him being his ability to train fighters.
Warrior is able to tell a deep story of family, with events that allude to their pasts but never actually told, particularly about both sons' mothers. Warrior plays around the idea of apology, but is actually a very weak theme and does not carry through the entire film. The actual tension is between the two brothers and father, as their estranged relationship is slowly unraveled through the entire movie. But, this type of story telling is not necessarily effective due to the lack of back-story in the beginning, making characters like Tommy not able to be connected to till later.
Overall, Warrior is an amazing action movie with great heartfelt moments. Tom Hardy is badass and Joel Edgerton is a great protagonist. If you love ultimate fighting and MMA, you will love this movie.
4/5
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