FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY
HHHHH
(12A)
THE family that dropkicks and piledrives together stays together in writer-director Stephen Merchant’s spandexclad comedy drama.
Inspired by a real-life rags-to-riches fairy tale, Fighting With My Family nelson holds our attention with a winning combination of angst, potty-mouthed humour and sentimentality.
A simple, heart-warming story unfolds during the glory days of John Cena and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson under the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) banner.
Patrick Bevis (Nick Frost) turns his back on thieving to establish the World Association of Wrestling (WAW) in Norwich with his wife Julia (Lena Headey).
They fight as Rowdy Ricky Knight and Sweet Saraya and encourage their wrestlingobsessed children Zak (Jack Lowden) and Saraya (Florence Pugh, star of the BBC’s The Little Drummer Girl) to resolve differences with a grapple.
Zak and Saraya have their own wrestling alter egos – Zak Zodiac and Britani Knight – and harbour bold ambitions to perform in America.
WWE trainer Hutch Morgan (Vince Vaughn) invites the siblings to audition at the O2 Arena in London. Only Saraya makes the cut and she flies to Florida alone to prove her worth.
Fighting With My Family is infused with Merchant’s dry humour and he earns further laughs with an extended cameo from Johnson.
One-liners are generously distributed among the cast including a scene-stealing Julia Davis as a strait-laced mother, who is clueless to the pomp and pageantry of the wrestling ring.