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The creaky sounds heard during the brawls in “Warrior” aren’t just the stretched tendons of prizefighters; they’re the brittle bones of the whole triumph-in-the-ring genre, which this mixed-martial-arts throwaway does virtually nothing to strengthen. Based, of course, on a true story, the Philadelphia-set film, a banal assemblage of the same old blue-collar tropes, presents itself as yet another ode to the financially battered, with one of its two fraternal lead characters literally fighting to save his family from foreclosure. But, make no mistake: “Warrior” has a whole different set of economic priorities, standing to make a buck as a piece of post-“Wrestler,” post-“Fighter” Hollywood copycatting.
The family man is Brendan (Joel Edgerton), a struggling teacher who’s painted as an American hero for taking up fighting and “putting everything on the line” for his wife and kids when, in fact, he’s a contemptible fool with selfish, reckless pride, too stubborn to apply for bankruptcy or downgrade to a smaller house, but ready to ignore his wife’s pleading and pursue cash in one of the more irresponsible and dangerous ways imaginable. His brother is Tommy (Tom Hardy), a shady and beastly ex-Marine who, as every trailer has already revealed, is fated to square off against Brendan in the final rounds of a global tournament.
If you can tolerate a constant exchange of growls and sunken-eyed stares, you’ll find richness in the scenes between Hardy, a devoted enigma, and Nick Nolte, who’s nakedly sensitive, Oscar-ready and gloriously typecast as the boys’ 1,000-days-sober dad. But the only true bit of narrative interest director and co-writer Gavin O’Connor can muster is the slow unfolding of the brothers’ checkered pasts. Otherwise, he’s dishing out the tired usual: pundit commentary, transgressive approval from the less-masculine authority figure, and, of course, training montages.
“Warrior” culminates as these movies do: with a rousing, near-death rumble that allows for years of baggage to be cathartically unloaded in the arena. However powerful, it’s distractive grandstanding, leaving you with a high so you’ll forget the preceding lows.
Warrior
PG-13
One-and-a-half reels out of four
In theaters tomorrow
Recommended Rental
Meek’s Cutoff
PG
Available Tuesday
A sparse and sprawling triumph of thoughtful minimalism, Kelly Reichardt’s “Meek’s Cutoff” fills its wide open spaces with a heady swirl of ideas and implications, be them about race, gender, politics, U.S. history, or things you can’t quite put a name on. Michelle Williams is superb as a lost pioneer, and Bruce Greenwood steals scenes as the title character, an ignorant guide whose Oregon Trail offshoot leads to a literal and figurative wilderness. SPR
Contact the South Philly Review at editor@southphillyreview.com.
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