FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY

Writer & Director
Stephen Merchant
(CEMETERY JUNCTION)

Stars
Florence Pugh, Nick Frost, Lena Headey, Jack Lowden and Vince Vaughn

Allow me to tell you a true story about this true story. While filming the action blockbuster FURIOUS 6 in the UK, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson discovered a documentary from 2012 titled THE WRESTLERS: FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY on TV in his hotel room. This prompted him to contact English writer and director Stephen Merchant to develop what he saw into a feature length film. That film, FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY is a comedy-drama biopic, which depicts the rise of professional WWE wrestler, Paige, and her family.

FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY begins in the year 2000, well before Paige (Florence Pugh), adopts her ring name. As a young girl whose birth name is Saraya, she is raised in a family of wrestlers alongside her brothers by her mother (Lena Headey) and father (Nick Frost). Together, they all earn a living by performing at venues in their local English town of Norwich, England, and throughout the country. Several years on and now in her late teens, Saraya encounters an opportunity to make her dreams come to fruition when she is auditioned by WWE Trainer, Hutch Morgan (Vince Vaughn).

Image result for fighting with my family bevis family film stills
Speaking from experience, I can guarantee that you do not need to be a fan of wrestling, or even know much about the sport, in order to thoroughly enjoy this movie. Falling for its charms happens as instantaneously and effortlessly as genuinely liking the close-knit and unconventional family depicted on screen. Perhaps part of the winning formula is in having an actor with a comedic background occupy the director’s chair. Every possible angle to extract and create humour as part of the story has been seized upon in similar fashion to what we saw from Taika Waititi in THOR: RAGNAROK. Also largely contributing to the mirth constantly had in this film is its very well written screenplay, also by director Stephen Merchant. The dialogue is inventive and witty, and the script defines each character in a very clear and relatable way. Further to that, the writing always keeps the film’s objective firmly in focus and it emerges as a story about equality while at its most triumphant too. All performances here are very strong and Dwayne Johnson’s minor appearance isn’t wasted either. But the real star of FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY is undoubtedly Florence Pugh as Paige. She displays her diverse range of talent in a gutsy showing that is arguably her best role and performance since her star-making outing in the riveting period drama, LADY MACBETH. Recommended viewing!