A very old-school treat.

Rating: 7/10 (21 November 2011)

When I first saw the trailer for Warrior I rolled my eyes about how clichÃ©d and by-the-books it appeared to be. After having seen it, there's no surprise that it was just that but there is a surprise in how taken I was by it. I think I'm starting to come to terms with the fact that things being drawn around an old and worn formula like this isn't always bad thing, and a movie like this is a prime example of that. It's hard to make a sports film in any other formula, so why screw around with something when it's already so tried and true? Instead you can just take the foundation that works and build something out of that, focusing instead on creating true of-the-time characters and deep emotional reservoirs with their relationship dynamics.
Warrior capitalizes on an age-old formula by allowing the audience to instead be swept up with the characters it portrays, which in turn makes those climatic fight sequences as intense as they should be. Even knowing how it all will eventually play out (as anyone who saw the upcoming DVD cover before seeing the film knows), I found my heart racing and my grip tightening during many of the fight scenes, terrified for Brendan Conlon and hoping he makes it through unscathed. The film focuses on the crossing journeys of Brendan and his brother Tommy, two polar opposites linked solely by blood and their hatred for their father Paddy, as they eventually come to a head. These two brothers couldn't be more different and the film approaches them in quite different ways.
We know all we need to know about Brendan within five minutes of meeting him; he is a good-natured high school teacher with a wife and children who is returning to his fighting roots in order to get money that his family desperately needs. There's no mystery to him, everything is laid on the surface, so it's up to star Joel Edgerton to keep us engaged with Brendan and rooting for him as the film progresses. Edgerton is an actor who has shined bright in supporting roles lately in films like The Square and Animal Kingdom, both from his native Australia, and here he's given a chance to really take center stage and dazzle and he lives up to his full potential. It's hard to think of a performance that I've seen lately that has had as much pure heart as Edgerton has here and I quickly found myself pulling for him and that never wavered for me. The character might be a little too good-natured, but that thought didn't even cross my mind until the film was well over because Edgerton absorbed me so much and had me so invested in this guy. This is an actor with a pure, natural talent that immediately draws your attention and keeps you glued. He has this vulnerability in his eyes that I always find fascinating and it really worked for the character here.
On the other side of the turmoil there's Tommy, and in the approach to him we are given very little at first. He appears on his father's doorstep after thirteen years, wanting to be trained to fight and slowly over the course of the film we learn more and more about what has happened to him that has gotten him to this point. Tom Hardy is an emerging young star and here he's given some center stage but I think the script kind of handicaps him in being able to show what talent he may or may not have holstered. Again pulling a move opposite to their treatment of Brendan, I think the script made Tommy too dark and the guy is just a mean son of a bitch that doesn't have a lot of depth to him. We get an understanding of why he is the way he is, but Hardy's portrayal is tuned into one station and never wavers from it for the entire film. He's just a battering ram of aggression in and out of the ring and I feel like through the script and Hardy we never get a proper understanding of who this guy is. I felt as though they gave a lot of the development to Brendan and Tommy was left too much as a one-note character; although I do feel that some of this can be attributed to the opposing performances of the leads.
Still, despite some flaws in the script I think the film has a lot more heart and emotion than most of it's genre. There were a lot of moments where I found myself tearing up a bit, especially when it came to Edgerton's character and his journey. The scales were tipped a little unevenly for me, but I could see other people rooting more for Tommy than Brendan as well. Director Gavin O'Connor, following up his underrated cop drama Pride and Glory, does a lot for this production in giving it a gritty '70s aesthetic that brings us into the world and sets the perfect tone for the stories of these guys. It feels like a cold, grimy winter and it really is expertly done on O'Connor's part and I think saves the film from some of it's script flaws. Because in the end my mind wasn't focused on the few negative aspects of the story, but the multiple positive ones that kept me engaged and rooting for these guys all the way. Like he did in Pride and Glory, O'Connor takes a standard genre flick and imbues it with this old-school atmosphere that makes it feel new and genuine and really hooked me from the word go. It certainly doesn't hurt that the film opens and closes with two of the finest songs by The National, my favorite band of all time, and certainly a band that fits the tone this film goes for. It's about the heart, not the fist.