Warrior Review

Gavin O'Connor, writing with Anthony Tambakis and Cliff Dorfman, builds Warrior on a coincidence the size of Atlantic City: two brothers who have not spoken in years enter the same winner-take-all tournament from opposite sides of the bracket. The Guardian's Andrew Pulver called the plot lunkheaded, and the Sparta scaffolding, from the unbeaten Russian champion to the Marine who outs Tommy as a war hero, is every bit as contrived as that suggests.

What rescues it is the acting. Tom Hardy plays Tommy as a clenched fist who barely speaks, Joel Edgerton makes Brendan's decency look like hard work, and Nick Nolte, Oscar nominated as their sober but unforgiven father Paddy, gives the best performance of his late career; the night Paddy relapses and Tommy holds him is the film's emotional core. Masanobu Takayanagi's handheld camera keeps the fights close and ugly rather than balletic.

The final bout, scored to The National's About Today, settles the family story inside the cage without a line of exposition. It flopped, taking 23.3 million dollars worldwide on a 25 million dollar budget, and was later remade in India as Brothers.