Review: Fighting With My Family (2019)

Based on a true story, the film follows Saraya Knight and her brother who are from a wrestling family, who both try out for the World Wrestling Entertainment. While Saraya makes the cut, but struggles to make it through training camp, her brother Zak struggles with begin rejected by the WWE.

According to interviews with Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, while filming in London he came across a documentary about the family this film would be based on, where the daughter would become Paige, one of the most popular female wrestlers the WWE has ever had.

The film was written and directed by Stephen Merchant, probably still best known for his work on the BBC TV series, The Office. On the surface, it is a straightforward story, with some moments, where you can see how it will go, leading to the rousing finish. In that respect, it's not different to any number of sports films.

However, if it just stuck to Searya (who becomes Paige) and nothing else it would be a slight but not bad little film. However, Merchant wisely opens up the film to contrast Saraya's struggle to make it to the WWE with Zak's struggling to come to terms with his WWE rejection. As a result, the film has much more going for it. It is also a funnier film that perhaps you might expect, which helps contrast some of the more dramatic moments in the film.

Merchant has written a funny and engaging script and as director, he keeps the film moving at a brisk pace, without missing any of the story beats. Yes there are a number of cliches you would expect in a film like this, but you overlook that to a degree when the story is told as well as it is here. He also captures very well both the old 'Big Daddy' type of wrestling that those of a certain age might remember from TV and the WWE training and wrestling scenes, revealing how much can go into developing not only a wrestler, but also how to develop a persona for the fans to love (or hate!).

The cast are first rate. Florence Pugh is rapidly becoming one of my favourite actresses and gives another good performance here, handling the wrestling scenes well (though she understandably uses a double for some of the moves) but also the humour and emotional heart of the story, of a woman struggling to fit in. She's matched by Jack Lowden as Zak, struggling to see where he belongs. Nick Frost and Lena Headey play their wrestling parents, but are often amusing, supporting their children and fighting with them in the ring. Vince Vaughn play the training camp instructor and does it very well indeed. Dwayne Johnson turns up in a couple of scenes, essentially playing himself from his wrestling days.

I don't know how accurate the film is in relation to the real Saraya/Paige story. I haven't seen the documentary about the family and in truth, i haven't watched any wrestling for a long time. But what I can say, is that as a film, Fighting With My Family is balances the humour and drama aspects very well indeed and does have a lot of emotion in there too. I didn't laugh out loud watching it, but I was smiling all the way through the film and was certainly charmed by it.

Well worth checking out.

Rating:4/5