2/11: Warrior

On Day 19 in my 34 Days of Oscar, I saw the movie "Warrior". This movie has been nominated this year for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Nick Nolte.

"Warrior" is set in the world of Mixed Martial Arts, or MMA. It shows 2 brothers Tommy (Tom Hardy) and Brendan (Joel Edgerton) that have taken very different life paths because of their father. Because their dad

(Nick Nolte) was an abusive alcoholic, and Tommy and his mom ran away from home. Because Brendan wouldn't go with him, Tommy has a big chip on his shoulder when it

comes to both Brendan and his dad. Because of financial reasons, Brendan has to re-enter the world of MMA to save his family's home when he is suspended from his teaching job. Tommy, after leaving the military, decides to enter a MMA tournament with a 5 million dollar payout and give the money to the wife of his best friend who died next to him in service. Both brothers enter the tournament and compete to win the 5 million dollar prize.

I thought "Warrior" was a pretty good movie. It had good acting and an interesting MMA storyline. I liked how we were given enough background info to see where both brothers are coming from and why they really needed the tournament prize. Both Edgarton and Hardy seemingly effortlessly pull off the physical part of their roles and you can see the mental scars from their childhood all over their faces in any scene they have with Nolte. Nick Nolte is nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role as the now reformed and sober dad who is just trying to get back in his son's lives. There is a lot of pain in his eyes and in his voice in those scenes where he has to take whatever verbal punishment his 2 sons are throwing at him. My favorite scene of his was when he shows up at Brendan's home unexpected and gets just a glimpse of the granddaughter he has never seen standing behind the front door.

In Nolte's eyes and in his voice you realize how badly he wants to be forgiven and just have a part in their lives, but how far he still has to go to get that. It was a good performance by Nick Nolte, but I'm not sure it was good enough for him to win the Academy Award. The only thing that somewhat disappointed me was that for a sports movie, there were really no "edge of your seat" fights. There was not 1 fight where I was caught off guard by the outcome. The fights were real and brutal, but I always knew before it started how it would end. The same is also true of this movie.

Overall, I give "Warrior" 3.5 out of 5 stars. I really liked all the performances, especially Hardy and Edgerton, but with a storyline like this you are telegraphed the ending an hour away. There were really no surprises here and outside of the main 3 characters there really is no other character development. I totally recommend this movie, as it was much better than I thought a MMA film would be, but anyone looking for an edge of your seat sports movie should look elsewhere.