Grapple with this: it’s good
Fighting With My Family
(out of 4) Starring Florence Pugh, Nick Frost, Jack Lowden, Lena Headey. Vince Vaughn and Dwayne Johnson. Directed by Stephen Merchant. Opens Friday at theatres everywhere. 108 minutes. PG Anybody who believes professional wrestling is phonier than a Trumpian boast isn’t likely to be disabused of this notion by watching the theatrical grappling of Fighting With My Family.
This fact-based comedy by writer/director Stephen Merchant, co-creator of TV’s The
Office, makes light of public perception that all those grunts and smashes in World Wrestling Entertainment events and other muscular matchups are carefully and cannily choreographed — which of course they are.
“It’s not fake, it’s fixed,” one character explains to another. To prove the point, there’s an amusing interlude where Nick Frost’s Rick, the tattooed dad of the grappling Knight family of Norwich, England, persuades a jumbo-sized wrestler to take both a trash-can lid to the face and a “(bowling) ball to the bollocks” to goose ticket sales.
But here’s the thing about this superbly cast and well-told movie, an unlikely cinema charmer: it wins you over for the sincerity of its participants, even if the spectacle is just “soap opera in Spandex.”
That alliterative assertion is from Dwayne Johnson, the film’s producer and cameo star, who has fond memories of being pro wrestler “The Rock” but also harbours no illusions.
Johnson has paradoxically never seemed more honest than he is here, extolling the virtues of hard work and believing in yourself while pursuing a career in body-slam “storytelling.”
He offers sage counsel to protagonist Paige ( Lady Macbeth’s Florence Pugh), a.k.a. Saraya, the only member of the Knight family who had to be prodded to join the family firm, which involves wrestling, promoting wrestling and running a gym for restless young wrestlers.
Rick lives and breathes for wrestling. So do mom Julia (Lena Headey) and Paige’s brother Zak (Jack Lowden).
Another brother is in jail — the other family occupation is robbing banks — but it seems likely he’s just a scrapper on ice, waiting for a chance to get back into the ring. Goth-attired and ringlipped Paige had to be coaxed into the ring, but once in there she found her calling.
So much so that a talent scout/ coach for the WWE, Vince Vaughn’s flinty Hutch, offers her a deal to move to Florida and train for the big leagues of brawling. Comedy turns to drama when Zak’s wrestling dreams hit the mat, unleashing sibling jealousy, but Paige’s Cinderella saga is no nursery tale. She arrives in Florida with a chip on her shoulder — she considers herself a “real” wrestler, unlike the former models and cheerleaders she meets in the ring. If she’s not careful, that chip will be slammed off.
Even if you can’t tell (or don’t care) going in to Fighting With
My Family about the difference between a WWE Divas Championship and a garden-variety cat fight, chances are you’ll be cheering for a win by the end of it. Upending expectations may be the biggest victory of all for this movie.