The Under-Rated

The underrated gem I am reviewing today actually came out last year. This film really blew me away. It was well acted, well written and absolutely amazing… and seemingly nobody watched it. In honor of its DVD release last month, I am reviewing Warrior. (And as usual, I will keep the spoilers to a minimum.)

The film is about two estranged brothers who both enter Sparta, a Mixed Martial Arts competition, for different reasons. The story delves into their lives and their relationship with their formerly abusive, recovering alcoholic father. In the process, the brothers must face their own demons and troubles pasts while quite literally facing each other on an emotional collision course in the ring. (This is only a spoiler if you have never seen the trailer or the DVD box!)

                                           Bane versus Owen Lars... (so that's how Uncle Owen died)

The older brother is Brendan Conlon (played by Joel Edgerton), a washed-up MMA fighter who gave up his violent career for his wife Tess (played by Jennifer Morrison) and his two daughters, the youngest of which had heart trouble as a baby. She needed many expensive surgeries that have left the family in serious debt to the extent of facing foreclosure on their house.

                                             "Of course you could kick Hugh Laurie's ass, honey."

The younger brother is Tommy Riordan (Tom Hardy), who took his mother’s maiden name. He returns home to both confront his father Paddy (Nick Nolte) and get his assistance to train him for Sparta. Despite his father’s attempts at reconciliation, Tommy repeatedly rebuffs him and remains tight-lipped about his past.

                           Nick Nolte finally found someone to take out his ungrateful "Hulk" of a son, Eric Bana!

Warrior maintains the perfect balance of drama mixed with great fight sequences. The comparisons to the original Rocky are common and quite apt here. Both Hardy and Edgerton trained rigorously in mixed martial arts and it really shows. The matches felt very authentic, it didn’t look like anyone pulled punches as not to hurt each other.

                                                    Tom Hardy totally just killed that guy.

As I said before, the acting is top notch. I went into the movie already liking Tom Hardy after his role in Inception and his performance as the angry and emotionally damaged Tommy Riordan did not disappoint. But I walked out of that theater having been completely won over by Joel Edgerton, who I hope will get more attention from now on in Hollywood. I was also pleased that Jennifer Morrison’s portrayal of Tess Conlon wasn’t your stereotypical “bitchy wife” of the sports hero. She came across like a real person in this scenario, a caring wife who wants to be supportive but doesn’t want to see her husband die in a fight. Lastly, I will be shocked if Nick Nolte isn’t at least nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Paddy Conlon, the broken old man trying to make amends for his sins and find the family that he drove away years ago.

                      Yes, that's Kurt Angle... and yes, the switch to turn off the intensity broke a long time ago.

I will say the biggest flaw of Warrior is its name, which is far too generic. I honestly think if the film had a better, catchier, thought-provoking title it might have done better. Unfortunately, the people in charge must have tried to milk the film’s MMA theme to try to get a strong male demographic by giving it a manly name which lost the soul of the film and in the process alienated the female patrons in the process. Some more advertising probably wouldn’t have hurt either. I think it’s a shame that more people didn’t see Warrior and I hope it gets some attention from the Academy Awards to give it some much needed attention.