An underdog, blue-collar sports film whose atmospheric plausibility and passionate, committed performances mostly win out over plotting that can sometimes feel calculated and tedious, Warrior shines a light on the increasingly popular spectator sport of mixed martial arts, blending in a story of familial reconciliation for good measure. For co-writer/director Gavin O’Connor (Miracle), it’s a nice return to form, and for rising stars Joel Edgerton and particularly Tom Hardy, it will serve as solid career stepping stone.

Haunted by the traumas of war, AWOL Marine and former amateur wrestling prodigy Tommy Conlon (Hardy) returns home for the first time in 14 years to visit his estranged father Paddy (Nick Nolte), a reformed alcoholic. After dispatching a major mixed martial arts title contender in a local boxing club sparring match, Tommy decides to train for Sparta, a new winner-takes-all special tournament event featuring 16 fighters.

Nearby, his brother Brendan (Edgerton), a former fighter turned physics teacher, returns to the ring in a desperate attempt to scrape together much-needed money that will allow his young family to keep their house. As the brothers train and then cut respective swaths through their more well known competition, old resentments bubble up, illuminating the back story of their separation and alienation from their father.

O’Connor attempted an injection of familial discord and contention into the cop drama genre with Pride and Glory, but Warrior tracks much more closely to 2004’s Miracle, which told the story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team’s stunning gold medal victory. It’s a movie that pushes the traditional buttons and pull the expected levers of physical competition in order to provide a surging sense of uplift and surrogate catharsis for its audience.

The particular formatting of its competition is rather ridiculous (matches on consecutive days would never be allowed), and other dramatic touches (Tommy kicking a pill-popping habit with seemingly no difficulty, for instance) come across as unnecessary flourishes. But O’Connor’s treatment of the concept is humanistic, and for every expected big story beat there are two or three moments of small, character-reflecting delight, such as the manner Brendan’s wife (Jennifer Morrison), who can’t bear to watch her husband on TV, awaits a call from him after the match.

Even less than the recent, Oscar-winning The Fighter, Warrior is less about the fighting or even the training and more about the family dynamics, though its fraternal settlement is observed at something of a remove. (Somewhat implausibly, the brothers don’t even know they are each competing in the nationally televised Sparta until they see each other the first day of the event.)

The proud, gruff performances of its leads mark Warrior as something engaging, and even memorable. Edgerton makes one believe in his deep-seeding need to keep his family intact, as his own father failed to do. Hardy, meanwhile, is brutish and intense, but also honestly recalls Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront, in terms of being a bundle of barely subjugated rubbed-raw emotions. Additionally, as the friend and trainer that helps build Brendan back into shape, Frank Grillo is quite striking — easygoing and engaging, yet always believable.