National Post (National Edition)
Fighting With My Family
Fighting With My Family Fighting with My Family suffers from an unfortunate title; it sounds like one of those bland ensemble comedies where relatives get together over a holiday and bicker. In fact, this tale, billed as “a true story,” is your basic underdog sports narrative, with some family comedy on the side. It goes down smoothly, with a handful of memorable moments, not least a cameo by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
Florence Pugh stars as Saraya-jade Bevis, whom we’ll call by her wrestling name, Paige. She’s part of a family of wrestlers from East Anglia, headed by Ricky Knight (Nick Frost) and his wife, Julia (Lena Headey). Paige has one brother in jail — a family trait; dad did eight years for “a bit of armed robbery” — and another in the ring.
T hat ’d be Zak ( Ja c k Lowden), whose girlfriend Courtney (Hannah Rae) is pregnant. Paige and Zak both try out for a spot in NXT, a kind of training camp for World Wrestling Entertainment. Paige gets picked; Zak doesn’t. Thus the film splits in two, as Paige heads off to train in sunny Florida while Zak stays home in Norwich, a city that helped put the “dust” in Industrial Revolution. Giant funnyman Stephen Merchant (6’7” if we’re measuring) has a bit part as Courtney’s dad.
More surprisingly, he is the film’s writer/director.
This is his second bigscreen effort, after the little seen and less liked 2010 comedy Cemetery Junction.
He does an adequate job here, though you can see his TV roots showing in some of the lacklustre framing and comic pacing. The film does feature some wonderful zingers, as when Paige first meets her blond-american colleagues and they adore her English accent: “You sound like a Nazi in a movie!” And there are some heartfelt lines as well. “Don’t worry about being the next me,” The Rock tells a fan in an exchange you can imagine happening for real. “Be the first you.”
Balancing out the ledger somewhat is Merchant’s need to include the standard training montage, though I’ll grant the musical choice of a female-fronted cover of BTO’S Takin’ Care of Business is inspired. And Vince Vaughn is mostly wasted in the role of the tough-but-fair coach.
It ’s wor th noting the scenes at the WWE fall flatter than John Cena’s new haircut. Though WWE brass would probably claim otherwise, this isn’t the most important aspect of the film, and the movie knows it.
Fighting With My Family is about family first, fighting second. ≤≤≤