Warrior (2011) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Gavin O' Connor

Starring:  Joel Edgerton, Tom Hardy, Nick Nolte, Kurt Angle

I watched Warrior assuming at best I would see a satisfying sports drama.   It worked better than that.   It became an engrossing story about a wounded family which oddly comes together and heals during an MMA tournament.    The fights are shot in the style of O' Connor's Miracle (2004), about the 1980 US Olympic Hockey team, with play-by-play on the soundtrack to help us figure out the action.   They are well done, to be sure, but the biggest strength of Warrior is that we care about the characters and we care what happens to them.   

Warrior opens with Philadelphia teacher Brendan Conlon (Edgerton) struggling to make ends meet .     An MMA tournament is announced with a $5 million purse, which would certainly cover the bills.    Brendan is a former MMA fighter and gets back into the cage to win a spot in the tournament.     Brendan's estranged brother Tommy (Hardy) returns from fighting in Iraq and wants to enter the tournament as well, but for different reasons that are made clear later.    Tommy enlists his father Paddy (Nolte), a recovering alcoholic who made life miserable for Brendan and Tommy growing up, as his coach.     Despite Paddy's recovery and desire to be closer to his sons, Brendan and Tommy are leery of him and each other.     The numerous wounds caused by Paddy's alcoholism are still gaping after many years.  

Brendan is a submission specialist while Tommy relies on brutal kicks and punches to knock his opponents out.    It comes as no surprise that the brothers will face off in the tournament and both have plenty to gain by winning, but they also must face resentments and pain which hurt as much as a leg lock or a punch to the face.     Warrior is not a "feel good" story.    Who wins the fight is secondary to whether the brothers are able to reconcile and forge forward as a family again.     I was truthfully more moved by Brendan's plight than Tommy's.     In fact, the way Tommy's situation is discovered and dealt with is rather unrealistic.   "Military police are waiting until after the fight before placing him into custody," says a TV news anchor covering the story.   Uh-huh.    I actually would've preferred it if this story line were dropped altogether, but I guess it's needed to provide Tommy an altruistic reason for fighting.

The performances are strong, with Edgerton's Brendan being the more sympathetic of the brothers.    Tommy (Hardy) is full of anger and bitterness, but softens up in a key scene when his old man falls off the wagon.    Nick Nolte is the best he has been in years, realizing slowly that his recovery won't necessarily be welcomed with open arms by his sons.    You'll notice I wrote more about the family than I did about the tournament itself.     The fight scenes are well choreographed and exciting, but they are only the backdrop.     I won't reveal who wins the big fight, but I was moved by the emotional payoff that came with it.    Really moved.