Movie review: Warrior

I will begin this review by saying this. "Warrior", is my most favorite film of 2011".

While the name of the movie sounds generic, and the trailer looked cheesy. The movie itself, in my opinion, is the best sports drama since Rocky.

While Rocky is about an underdog story of American dream coming true, but I prefer Warrior, because at the core of this movie, it is the message about forgiveness, love and family that makes Warrior a more meaningful movie than Rocky.

Synopsis:

The movies starts with Tommy (Tom Hardy) paying visit to his former alcoholic father Paddy (Nick Nolte), after years of disappearance. During the visit, Tommy found out that Paddy has been fighting his alcoholic addiction for 3 years, and have become a Christian, and is sorry for all the past hurts he had to done to his family (such as neglecting his family, and domestic violence). Tommy, carrying resentment towards his father, mocked his father's new found faith and adapted a very harsh, and sarcastic attitude towards his father's pleads for forgiveness.

Paddy informed Tommy that his older brother Brendon (Joel Edgerton), is married with two kids, and have become a high school physics teacher. Carrying anger and resentment towards his father and brother for leaving him and his mother (who is deceased), Tommy left Paddy's house. The next day, Tommy signed up to at a gym, and in a unintentional bout for 200 dollars, defeated the top contender for UFC middle weight championship. Tommy returned to Paddy, and ask him to be his trainer, but all the time mocking Paddy. Tommy's reason was because he is interested in competing in "Sparta", a MMA event where the winner walks away with 500 million dollars. However, he refused to tell his father his motivation for joining this competition.

In the meantime, Brendon is struggling with finance. He was informed by the bank that he will loose his house if he can't pay the mortgage. It is revealed that Brendon is in debt because he was trying to pay for his daughter's heart surgery the year before. Unable to pay the debt on his school teacher salary. Brendon went back into MMA fighting, but became suspended by school after he was discovered for participating in MMA matches. After seeing an advertisement, Brendon visited his old friend, asked to be trained and also joined Sparta, in hope of getting the prize money for solve his family's financial problem.

As the story unfolds, it turned into a family drama about forgiveness, dealing with past hurts and loving relationship between a repenting father and his two sons, together with some top notch MMA actions.

My thoughts:

As I stated at the opening line of this review. Warrior is my most favorite film of 2011. Not only is the movie very well done, but it portrayals of the characters in the movie are very realistic, and so humane that I think anyone can somewhat be related to it.

Paddy is a former alcoholic who not only ruined his own family, but also brought a lot of hurt to his two sons and his deceased wife. Having become a Christian, Paddy is looking for forgiveness and a chance of renewing his relationship with his two sons. However, he struggled because both of his two sons are unwilling to forgive him, and to see Nick Nolte's performance as Paddy is heart wrenching.

Brendon's story is more straight forward, his motivation for fighting in MMA is fueled by his desperate attempt to protect, and to care of his family. However, as the story progresses, Brendon also had to, in his heart deal with his irresponsible past actions for leaving Tommy and his mother, although he is the elder brother in the family. At the same time, Brendon had to struggled to forgive his repenting father. Although I have to say that Brendon is probably my less favorite character in this film, because I doubt he really forgave his father at all. (Can you forgive someone without trusting them? This is a good question worthy of discussion).

Tommy is the most interesting character in this movie. At the start of the movie, Tommy's intention is totally unknown. Only that Tommy is a an extremely angry individual who harbors a lot of resentment towards his father and brother for the past hurts. However, as the story unfolds, Tommy's past and his motivations is fully revealed, and despite his harsh words and sarcastic comments to his father, Tommy's deep love for his father was eventually shown in two most heart moving scenes toward the end of the film (which I won't spoil).

The base plot of the movie is not complex, but the depth of the characters and their relationships with each other is so complex, and relevant to everyday people like you and me, that makes Warrior a relentless, and brutally honest sports/family drama that is a must see in 2011.

Conclusion:

Story 9.2/10 - Personally, the story in Warrior is my favorite type of movie stories. Simple, easy to follow storyline with in depth, complex characters and a realistic portrayal of human and family relationships. Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton's performances as Tommy and Brendon are outstanding!

Cinematography - 9/10: I would complain that the camera was a bit shaky, to eminent a sense of realism in a drama movie such as this. However, personally I don't like the shaky camera style, but some of the scenes captured the character's thoughts and emotions really well. The MMA actions are well choreographed!

Sex/nudity - none

Violence - Heavy: There are plenty of MMA/UFC actions, so is it violent? Yes I would say it is violent, but no more violent than watching a boxing match.

Final score: 9.1/10 - Good story, and top notch performances from Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton. The result is a unique, powerful, compelling, and heart moving family drama set in the world of MMA. It is one of those extremely rare boxing/fighting movies that you don't want to see either fighter loose. If you are planning to go to the cinema soon, make this a priority on your "to watch" list. Most importantly, it raises a good discussion topic on "can you forgive someone without trusting them?"