( EW.com ) -- Brendan Conlon ( Joel Edgerton ) , a high school physics teacher , has a house the bank is about to foreclose on and a daughter with an ( expensive ) heart defect . He 's also a former mixed-martial-arts champion , and so -- strictly for the money -- he decides to get back in the ring , even if the clawing , kicking , anything-goes bouts threaten to kill him . Tommy Conlon ( Tom Hardy ) , an Iraq-war veteran who left the battlefield under mysterious circumstances , is also an MMA fighter , and he too wants back in the ring . The two men are brothers , and were once close . But the only thing that unites them now , apart from their ruthless hand-to-hand prowess , is how much they hate their father , Paddy ( Nick Nolte ) , a recovering alcoholic whose drinking tore the family apart . 'Rescue Me ' series finale : Were you satisfied ? `` Warrior , '' a two-track drama of fighting and redemption , tells the parallel stories of Brendan and Tommy , and the movie , with its grim , deliberate rhythms and grainy '70s-style look , comes on as if it were no mere sports fable . It 's about demon-haunted Irish Catholic men testing and punishing themselves . It 's about broken families coming together . It 's about economic desperation and about America getting off the ropes and recovering its fighting spirit . If `` Rocky '' was sweet and inspiring , and `` The Fighter '' was touching and fascinating , `` Warrior '' is at times almost gravely self-important . The gifted director Gavin O'Connor ( `` Miracle '' ) brings the film an affecting , ripped-from-the-guts spirit , even if he ca n't really hide how many old-movie tropes are floating around in it . PTC slams 'Toddlers & Tiaras ' for 'Pretty Woman ' hooker costume . Mostly , `` Warrior '' is a showcase for its up-and-coming stars . Edgerton , from last year 's `` Animal Kingdom , '' and Hardy , who stole scenes as the identity forger in `` Inception , '' both have a tense , tough presence , though in a slightly colorless way . You buy them as brothers , and as gnarly brawlers hungry to win , but Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale they are not . In this film , they 're closer to the second coming of Tom Berenger and Michael ParÃ© . B . See full article at EW.com . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . © 2011 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved .
`` `` Warrior '' '' is a two-track drama of fighting and redemption . It tells the parallel stories of Iraq and Paddy , and has a grainy '70s-style look . Warrior is at times almost gravely self-important .