Heart of a Warrior

Tommy Conlon (Tom Hardy) is a deserter turned war hero, goes by his mother’s maiden name – Riordan - for a surname, and takes after his once-alcoholic father Paddy (Nick Nolte) as a natural born wrestler. Brother Brendan Conlon (Joel Edgerton) is a family man and schoolteacher, who needs to get into the mixed martial arts (MMA) ring to prevent being dispossessed of his home. Warrior begins with a family wholly estranged, with members blaming each other for past wrongs suffered. And what better arena to bring out the family dirty linen in public than the fighting arena. And after they are through with a bevy of prize-fighters, the brothers – somewhat expectedly – go for each other. With emoting that is of hardly the highest standards, Warrior would have been a damp squib if the fight scenes were not so good, and with a generous dose of help from the unlikely combination of Captain Ahab and Beethoven. This is in some respects an un-missable movie, where in spite of a limp storyline, the sheer execution sets this movie apart

16/20