By: Steven Mesa/Columnist
In the sports movie genre, the predictability factor could be a turn-off for some moviegoers who have seen what seems like thousands of movies ending with either the underdog winning or losing, only to learn a valuable lesson. I believe that as long as the movie is entertaining, then predictability should not matter at all.
“Warrior” may be predictable by sports movie standards, but it is an entertaining film that not only focuses on the ferocious in-ring action, but also makes you care about the main characters and the problems they have.
Brendan Conlon (Joel Edgerton) and Tommy Reardon (Tom Hardy) are estranged brothers who come from different backgrounds despite being raised in the same household. Brendan is a high-school teacher, a family man and a former mixed martial arts fighter who is struggling to make ends meet.
Tommy is a former Marine who reconnects with his alcoholic father, Paddy (Nick Nolte), with the intention of having dad train him for an upcoming MMA tournament in Atlantic City. What Brendan and Tommy don’t know is that they have put themselves on a collision course to face each other in the tournament where they will take their unstable emotions for one another in the ring with them.
Director Gavin O’ Connor (“Miracle”) does a great job introducing the characters without overloading the first hour with a lot of exposition in terms of the characters’ backgrounds and how they became the men they are now. O’ Connor not only manages to make this story very compelling because of the family drama, but also enthralling with nicely shot and well- choreographed MMA fight sequences.
The performances in this film by Edgerton, Hardy and Nolte are truly the best three performances to be seen in a single film this year. Both Edgerton and Hardy are terrific as the feuding brothers with different approaches to their own fighting styles. While Edgerton embodies his character as a calm and efficient fighter, Hardy’s character is fueled by rage and has a more animalistic behavior both in and out of the ring.
When they finally go toe-to-toe with each other in the ring, their fighting styles mesh together to make the final match of the film an emotional and brutal scene. Nick Nolte delivers his best performance in a while as the father of the two brothers and an alcoholic who is trying to reunite his sons despite their troubled past.
Like “The Fighter,” the focus on the action in the ring and the lives of the characters in “Warrior” are equally balanced. However, there are major differences between the two films. While “The Fighter” was based on a true story that also happened to be an extraordinary boxing movie, “Warrior” is entirely fictional and MMA becomes a primary focus on the silver screen for the first time since 2008, where moviegoers got their first taste of the sport with the release of David Mamet’s “Redbelt” and Orlando-set “Never Back Down.”
If this movie is successful and generates enough word-of-mouth, it could make MMA even more popular than ever just like how “Rocky” made the sport of boxing interesting and popular again. “Warrior” also mirrors real life with some of the characters that may be familiar to fans of Ultimate Fighting Championship; some of the characters remind me of Dana White and Brock Lesner. The Dana White-esque character is a man who organizes an event to find out who is the toughest fighter on the planet and the Brock Lesner-like character is a seemingly unbeatable and undefeated Russian fighter, played by former World Wrestling Entertainment wrestler Kurt Angle.
Far from an ordinary sports movie, “Warrior” is one of the best movies of the year that manages to successfully become both a family drama and an exciting sports film with great performances from Joel Edgerton, Tom Hardy and Nick Nolte.
Reel to Reel is a weekly movie review column. Look for it every Friday this Fall.
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