Running Time: 2 hours, 19 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Director: Gavin O’Connor
Quick Impressions:
The Fighter was my favorite Oscar contender last year, and although the premise of Warrior looked uncannily similar, I still wanted to see this film because of the caliber of actors involved and the potential for a compelling story with an uplifting ending. Plus, I’ve heard lots of early Oscar buzz for Nick Nolte, who certainly has the life experience to portray a recovering alcoholic convincingly.
(Also, despite its stellar cast, Contagion will never lure me into the theater because I already tense up every time I hear a random cough from the audience. Nobody as paranoid about germs as I am should pay money to endure a film about a viral pandemic.)
Of course, Warrior is about Mixed Martial Arts, a completely different sport from the boxing featured in The Fighter. Still, the films share so many superficial similarities (including release dates less than a year apart), that it’s hard not to think about The Fighter while watching Warrior. (Even the characters seem somehow aware of the earlier movie. In one scene, Brendan’s trainer scoffs at his hopes to enter the tournament and tells him he has a better chance starting a boy band.)
From its first scene, though, Warrior establishes a more somber and brooding tone than The Fighter. It’s not a funny movie, and much of what motivates these two brothers to step into the ring comes from a dark place. Brendan fights to defend his home and family, and thoughts of home and family also motivate Tommy to fight.
If you think you know everything about the movie from watching the preview, you’re probably wrong. I expected to watch most of the movie with divided loyalties, but I didn’t. And the ending genuinely surprised me by managing to resolve the entire situation more neatly than I had thought possible.
The Good:
The characters feel pretty real. They’re not over-the-top, larger than life, Dickensian types there to entertain the audience. They’re three men who speak softly and hit hard, and everyone in the theater ought to be able to identify with at least one of them. Nick Nolte’s Paddy is a recovering alcoholic and failed family man trying to atone for the past that still punishes him. Joel Edgerton’s Brendan is a school teacher about to lose his family’s home because of economic circumstances beyond his control. Tom Hardy’s Tommy is perhaps the most mysterious and tormented one of the bunch, the younger son who returns home for reasons he doesn’t seem able to explain.
The early scenes in the movie thoroughly establish a general milieu of misery. Paddy Conlon’s family is beyond broken. Brendan Conlon’s family is in jeopardy. And Tommy goes by the last name Riordan now, even though what happened to Tommy Conlon clearly motivates Tommy Riordan’s every action.
Just when the unhappiness of the characters threatens to become more unsettling than entertaining, the fighting starts. Though the characters are compelling, and the performances more than solid, Warrior finds its greatest strength in its scenes of MMA action. The Fighter showed relatively little boxing, but in Warrior, the action in the ring plays a major role in advancing the story. Some of the heaviest hitting moments come in the form of…well, heavy hits.
Best Action Sequence/Best Scene:
Without a doubt, the most gripping moment of the movie comes during the match with Koba. At that point, I was on the edge of my seat thinking about nothing but the outcome of that match. Since the preview reveals that Tommy and Brendan would face each other in the final battle, I knew that one of them had to face Koba first. I also knew that logically, whichever brother faced Koba would have to defeat him. But I watched on the edge of my seat, anyway, swept away by the action and the genuine suspense of how on earth Koba was going to lose that fight. I’d call it the best scene of any kind.
Best Fight Sequence Outside the Ring:
The toughest opponent Tommy faces is probably himself, but he certainly seems to view his father as the one to beat. In the scene with Paddy in the casino, Tommy definitely lands his punches. It’s heart-breaking to watch as its happening, but when we see how the fight finishes in the Moby Dick scene, the sequence becomes truly moving.
Most Oscar-worthy Moment:
Nick Nolte’s character allows him the showiest performance in the film. Though Nolte’s Moby Dick moment in the hotel room definitely leaves an impression, I preferred an earlier scene. When Nolte’s Paddy approaches his son Brendan’s house hoping to be asked inside, the strained and painful conversation that ensues certainly showcases Nolte’s talent as an actor. His work in front of the house is more subtle than his later breakdown, and Joel Edgerton makes a good emotional sparring partner, strategically deflecting every desperate overture Brendan’s broken father makes.
Best Surprise:
The ending itself surprised me tremendously. I don’t mean to imply that it’s any kind of twist. But not until the final moments of the film did I ever really understand the character of Tommy and just what he was fighting for. From the moment I saw the preview, I wondered how the story of two brothers fighting for the championship would find satisfying resolution. There was a simple elegance in the ending that honestly surprised me.
Best Scene Visually:
Throughout most of the movie, the most arresting visuals are dynamic—images of MMA fighters in the ring. But the opening of the movie reveals so much in the shadows first of Paddy’s car where we see rosary beads, then his living room where we see old photographs. Later on, the movie again makes use of shadow to show us something important about the characters. On the beach, the lights of Atlantic City where huge crowds are gathered for the fight blare brightly in the distance, but the turbulent meeting of the estranged brothers happens in the shadows near the sea.
The Performances:
Joel Edgerton is fantastically sympathetic as Brendan Conlon, a character who’s easy to relate to with his financially devastating medical bills, unhelpful bank, and inadequate teaching salary. He’s literally fighting to keep his home, and Edgerton makes him easy to like. Previously, I only remember seeing Edgerton in Animal Kingdom, and his performance here is completely different. He’s an actor I hope to see more in the future.
Tom Hardy plays Tommy Riordan as an extremely vulnerable tough guy, a tricky balance to pull off. Tommy’s the type of guy who wounds because he’s wounded, and since he’s deliberately agonistic, he’s often difficult to like. But you can never quite hate him because Hardy’s eyes frequently remind us that the monster in the ring is at heart a boy haunted by monsters.
Nick Nolte gives the most noticeable performance as Paddy Conlon, an excellent part for him. Nolte does give a strong and moving performance, but though it is certainly worthy for Oscar consideration, I can’t say at this point if he deserves a nomination because I haven’t seen any of his competition.
Jennifer Morrison is good but not memorable as Tess Conlon, Brendan’s loyal but frustrated wife whose character is so secondary to the three Conlon men that the actress can’t really make her stand out.
Both my husband and I loved the humor and humanity that Frank Grillo as Frank Campana and Kevin Dunn as Principal Zito brought to their roles. The Conlon family is so tortured that it’s nice to see some well-meaning characters who care but are removed from the drama. Grillo makes Campagna seem so real and warm, and I loved seeing the charismatic Kevin Dunn play someone besides Sam Witwicky’s bumbling dad.
The Negatives:
This wasn’t a true story, so why wasn’t the Paddy Conlon character given a bit more closure? I loved the way the movie handled the conflict with the brothers, but I thought that Nick Nolte played Paddy so well, he deserved better than being left to wander teary-eyed, smiling vaguely at everyone until the credits rolled. His Moby Dick scene was poignant and impossible to miss, but everything after that seemed almost painfully anticlimactic. Maybe that was the point, but I’m not convinced.
I also think that the movie was just a bit slow at the beginning. It established the crux of the problem shared by the three principal characters in the first scene between Tommy and his father, and even though more nuances were revealed in subsequent scenes, I still think the pacing lagged until the tournament started.
Overall:
Warrior is worth seeing for the gripping MMA portions alone. I quickly found a champion worth rooting for, and that made each fight increasingly suspenseful and rewarding. The emotional scenes are also heavy-hitting, with Nick Nolte’s Paddy, in particular, leaving a poignant impression. And fans of Moby Dick could probably discuss this movie’s relationship to the novel for at least three weeks (especially if they were trying to avoid doing more unpleasant work).
Is it the best movie I’ve ever seen? No, of course not, but it’s very solid as both a drama and a movie about MMA. If you like movies about brothers, or movies about fighting, or movies about recovering alcoholics, or movies featuring a hulkingly buff Tom Hardy, or movies where a family-oriented high school physics teacher wins street fights, then you’ll like Warrior. I did.