Fighting with My Family Movie Review - A fairly humorous Sports Biopic

Still from the trailer

Fighting with My Family

U/A: Biography, Comedy, Drama
Director: Stephen Merchant
Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Lena Headey, Vince Vaughn, Nick Frost, Florence Pugh, Jack Lowden
Rating:

This Stephen Merchant directed biopic-dramedy based on a true story, encapsulates World Wrestling Entertainment's Super Diva Paige a.k.a Saraya Knight's (Florence Pugh) journey from small-time family wrestling to a big-time wrestling celebrity at age 26.

'Do you know what The Rock is cooking?' - a familiar catch-phrase for The Rock's fans, opens the drama out here too. As the end credits reveal, a 2012 UK Channel 4 documentary 'The Wrestlers: Fighting With My Family,' apparently caught his eye - enough to have him produce Paige's incredible life story. The film starts out as a family drama with a former wrestler and his family make a living performing at small venues around the country. They wrestle as a family.

Dad Ricky Knight (actor Nick Frost), mom Julia Knight (Lena Headey), son Zak Knight (Jack Lowden) and daughter Saraya Knight (actress Florence Pugh) play tag, teaming up two against two to draw in the audience. Then Saraya and Zak hear about the WWE Next trials and compete for a place but only Saraya gets chosen by coach Hutch (Vince Vaughn). Envy, defeatism, anger plague the once loving brother-sister relationship before the eventual rapprochement which leads to Paige's Diva title.

Check out the trailer here:

This is a fairly fun film with oddball dynamics and conflicts at play. We get to see some really tough training routines that the women have to go through and Paige's struggles are well represented. Unfortunately, the script doesn't do enough to convince us of Paige's ability. Most of the time, while in prep-mode, Paige is shown as struggling with her own inner demons, suffering from crippling self-doubt and failing to match-up to the strengths and fitness of slimmer, less crafty damsels. As a result, her winning the Divas belt seems more like a fluke than a result of hard work and infallible wrestling craft. There's a surprisingly good amount of sharp wit and one-liners though and that gives the narrative its beans. The performances are credit-worthy, each actor contributing his/her bit with robust unaffected verve.

You really don't have to be a wrestling fan to enjoy this film. It's not about the fixed fights( and not Fake like some would want to call it) really. This movie though formulaic, and while it includes scenes prepping the selected athletes about branding themselves for superstardom, has more to say about the pursuit of a dream and how competitive siblings get affected when one makes it and the other doesn't.

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