Warrior

For Last Few Days, I am going through Writer's Block or at least I think I am. It is actually Funny, since I do not consider myself a Writer in a strictest sense. And it is not even a block really since I have few ideas about what to write. I just do not feel like writing anything. Most of it, I attribute to imminent defense of my Masters degree. I will be done by Jan end but I don't want my blog to be completely dormant till then especially since I have picked up a little pace in last couple of months. All the nominations for awards should help. Come February, I have few plans to make it more interesting however, until then I am just trying to survive here. Talking of Awards, I have been trying to catch up as many award contender movies as possible. Of the once already released, I have seen quite many but Shame(2011), My week with Marilyn(2011) and The Artist(2011) remain to be the glaring pot holes. So, the other day, I saw Warrior(2011), a nice little sports movie for which Nick Nolte is gathering few nominations as a Supporting Actor.

Warrior(2011) is a story of 2 Brothers, Brandon played by Joel Edgarton who is a Physics Teacher in High School and really popular too and Tommy played by Tom Hardy, who has just returned home From Iraq. Nick Nolte plays their father, former Alcoholic Boxer Trainer who is recovering from his habit. Tommy and Brandon are fighters too, but have moved on with their life. After returning Tommy starts to train in the local gym where he hears about mixed martial arts tournament called Sparta which has a $5 million prize for Winner. He gets his father to train him for it and start preparing for it. On the other Hand, Brandon has a nice little Family - Wife and Two Daughters. However, he ends up in Cash Trouble to Re-Finance his house. Being a Fighter, He goes back to recreational fights in the Parking Lot of Club, which he realises pays much faster than his teaching job. So, he starts his training too and a rather unfortunate incidence with fellow boxer lands him in Sparta Tournament too, to much of his surprise, against his own brother.

As much as it looks like a Sports movie, It is much more about making a dysfunctional family work again. Growing up, Brandon and Tommy never had a real family because of their drunk father. Even Brandon eventually abandons Tommy and his mother in hope of a better life with his wife, when they oppose their marriage. It leaves their sick mother for Tommy to watch her die in his arms and it has left Tommy completely emotionally detached from his Family. Their father, who is recovering from his drinking habits, realizes that he was the reason why both his sons never had a childhood, they never had a life until they both looked elsewhere outside for it. And throughout the Movie, we see their father apologizing to both the brothers for doing this to them. But his mistakes of the past are too great for any of them to trust him ever again. Even when Tommy turns to him for his training, his only condition is to keep it strictly to the training.

Warrior follows a well known path, there are not any surprises in the story for you. The way movie plays out, almost until half time we do not know that Brandon and Tommy are brothers. But it eventually becomes imminent that at some point in the tournament, they will face each other. Even respective paths they follow till they face each other were anticipated too. Not only that, I was even anticipating the boxers they will face in the penultimate round and they did face them. However despite all these cliches, the reason Warrior works is because it invests a lot in characters. All the three characters the story is built around are extremely well built, have a lot of depth to them and are played beautifully by the respective actors. Nick Nolte is excellent as a Father recovering from his drinking habit. Nick Nolte brings all the emotions forward beautifully. I will be rooting for him to get nominated in Supporting Actor Category. Tom Hardy is excellent as well, as emotionally detached son. It is really great to see such a talented actor making use of his potential. However, Joel Edgarton is the real revelation here. His character goes through a lot of transformations and his portrayal of it is one of the principal reason why this film works for me. It is also good to see Jennifer Morrison getting to the big screen, even in a small role. 

So, even though storyline is similar to some of the movies in the past, Warrior(2011) is well written, directed and above all well acted emotional roller coaster that does keep you at the edge of your seat.

Rating(out of 5):