Though comparisons with last year's boxing drama The Fighter are inevitable with its overarching theme of family and estranged brothers, Warrior is not strictly a boxing film.
It's mixed martial arts, which gives the makers the licence to mix up a bit of The Wrestler and a bit of The Fighter in terms of action choreography. And as top-notch action sequences are, it's the punches in the drama that come as a surprise in a film with a poster that looks like a World Wrestling Federation flyer.
Very rarely have we seen a fighting film with as much muscle in the drama department.
Now, Gavin O'Connor's film has everything that would make it seem like a lesser, predictable, cheesy action film with its brother-against-estranged-brother plot.
But the detail to which the characters are fleshed out ensures that you don't really question the convenience with which the screenplay powers them into the final predictable match — the one you paid for, from the poster — Brendon (Joel Edgarton) versus Tommy (Tom Hardy).
Scriptwise, it's what you would get if Micky (Mark Wahlberg) had to face Dicky (Christian Bale) in the climax of The Fighter , which kept the audience hooked with its based-on-a-true-story card.
But this is a story that would inspire the Deols to make a sequel to Apne . Yes, it's THAT territory. A father torn between two warring sons.
With all the ingredients of a Hindi blockbuster that could've starred Dharam Garam, Sunny Paaji and Bobby, Warrior (with Nick Nolte, Joel Edgarton and Tom Hardy in those roles), is as much brain as it is brawn.
You discover these men slowly into the film, the director in no hurry at all to spell out their back stories in one blow. And it all comes together nicely, the drama and the action so well spaced out that the impact of the action sequences is to be seen to be believed.
The action choreography gets your adrenaline pumping, instantly puts a spring in your feet and before you know it, you realise you've clenched your fist so hard, ready to whack the living daylights out of the frontbenchers playing music from their phones during the talkie portions of the film.
This is a celebration of all things male, one guaranteed to make you join the gym again. One when men settle issues the good old-fashioned way. Dishoom-dishoom. A film where peace is made through a world of pain, unrelenting violence and a never-ending rain of blows.
The fights are delightfully unpredictable and though you know how it would all end, it's the way it's shot that makes your heart skip a beat.
Warrior is what you will be rooting for, when the Oscar nominations are announced next year. Go Tommy, go.
Warrior
Genre: Action
Director: Gavin O Connor
Cast: Joel Edgarton, Tom Hardy, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Morrison
Storyline: A suspended physics teacher must return to the ring to save his house and face his deadly estranged brother who stands in the way
Bottomline: One of the best action dramas in recent times, would beat The Fighter in the cage any day.
