Directed by: Gavin O’Connor
Starring: Joel Edgerton, Tom Hardy, and Nick Nolte
Reviewer: Brett Gallman
Reviewer's Rating: *** (Three Stars)
As Warrior deals with a sport centered around two guys beating the crap out of each other, I suppose it follows that it would pummel all subtlety and place viewers in a chokehold of clichés and sentimentality. A tale of two estranged brothers (Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton) who are even further estranged from their former-boozehound-now-born-again father (Nick Nolte), Warrior never leaves its climax in doubt; when the two brothers enter in the world’s biggest MMA tournament, it’s a given that the two will come to blows in the finals. Despite this, the film remains compelling and riveting thanks to some star-making performances by Edgerton and Hardy that are bolstered by Nolte’s fierce, affecting turn.
The two leads are of course polar opposites who only find common ground in their fighting ability and their disdain for their father. Edgerton is fantastic as the scrappy, Rocky-like underdog filled with understated steel-town resolve; he’s the family man of the two whose mortgage is in danger of defaulting. On the other hand, Hardy is a brooding and dangerous ex-Marine, the prodigal son who lost his way. Charismatic and sensational in his ability to balance the character’s abrasive petulance with its wounded vulnerability, Hardy gives a memorable performance. As a fighter, I’d call him Drago to Edgerton’s Rocky, but the flick even tosses in an indomitable, monstrous Russian (who is of course undefeated) in its insistence on featuring as many expected plot beats as possible. Often sharing the screen with Hardy is Nolte, whose character is absolutely shattered and in search of forgiveness; it’s one of those fine, loud performances in a loud, obvious film.
Once the tournament actually begins, it feels like it should be mere procedure, but O’Connor’s direction keeps the fights interesting, if only because we can feel them more so than we can actually see them. He also captures the spectacle of it all, as the various spectators (Edgerton’s wife and high school students, Hardy’s fellow Marines) help to tug sentiment out of audiences. And it mostly works, as Warrior is a bit of an underdog itself--it’s formulaic, pandering, and even a bit manipulative, but it manages to overcome these hurdles by being a rousing crowd-pleaser.
ADDITIONAL IMAGES:
No comments:
Post a Comment