A Fighting Movie that Keeps the Realism of Fighting

Rating: 8/10 (7 June 2012)

You can see the resemblance that this film has toward other underdog films like "Rocky," so if you are expecting something new, you'll probably be disappointed. However, despite all of this, director Gavin O'Connor did a tremendous job of presenting a good story; presenting very good human drama behind these characters, character development, and presenting scenes that are extremely emotional.
I really found myself being teary eyed throughout various moments in this film and crying at the climax. Everything was well executed: the character development, storytelling, and the human drama that leads to various of scenes that creates an emotional feel to it. For example, as you watch Brendan go into the octagon ring and face off the athletes who are known as the best, you can't help the fact of wanting to cheer for him and wanting to see him claim that victory. The storytelling was well used, focusing on both characters equally and never going offtrack on portraying one more over the other. This will lead you to possibly cheer for both characters, but you might split on who you might cheer the most. Tommy, portrayed by Tom Hardy, is vicious and is simply an animal and Brendan, portrayed by Joel Edgerton is a Rocky type of character; a good guy and a character who you just can't hate. The story never went offtrack and focused only on the life of these two brothers which leads to climax that was seen in the trailer.
Usually, flashbacks are presented in any film in order for viewers to understand the characters or to get a basic idea behind the story. There are no flashbacks, but by watching the great performances by the cast and hearing the dialogue of these characters as they interact one another, you somehow understand their pain and understand how damaged all of them are without any presentation of flashbacks. Just by listening to how Brendan talks to his father and to how Tommy interacts with his brother, you can see that they are damaged and that this family had a rough past.
Being a fan of the sport, I will say that if you enjoy watching UFC or any type of mixed martial arts, then you will surely enjoy watching these fights. Hearing about this film, I expected this film to be like "Never Back Down," or "The Fighting," where the film presents a dumb storyline with ridiculous fighting styles and actors committing wire action moves that you probably will see in a Chinese kung-fu film. This film presented realistic fighting where actors are actually committing moves and fighting styles that you actually see in any type of MMA match. I found myself cheering and enjoying these matches as if I was actually watching one live. These fights were well presented; the camera angles behind some of the matches were not well presented, which is possibly my only complaint about this film. However, despite some bad camera angles, these fights were exciting and presents some pretty awesome knockouts. I won't lie, I had a huge grin behind some of these matches, especially toward Tommy's fights. Watching how he knocks out his opponents was gratifying.
Have you ever watched a match where two of your favorite fighters are at the main event facing each other and you don't want either one to lose? This is the feeling that you will get when you watch the climatic battle between both brothers inside of the ring. The film did a great job of following both characters, leading you to have that feeling of not wanting to see neither one lose.
The acting was just superb, as every actor gave it their best and were great portraying each character. Tom Hardy as the vicious Tommy, Joel Edgerton as the Rocky type of hero, Brendan, and Nick Nolte as the father. These characters are damaged and the acting by these three really portrays how damaged these characters are without the usage of flashbacks to portray the pain that they carry. Everyone gave it their best, leading to great performances by every single actor/actress.
This film does not present nothing new to the underdog genre. However, this film is possibly one of the best film of 2011. A great storyline that focused on two characters equally, great performances, MMA action that was actually accurate and exciting to watch, and well focused human drama.