Genre: Comedy
Runtime: 108 minutes
Year: 2019
Starring: Florence Pugh, Nick Frost, Lena Heady, Dwayne Johnson, Vince Vaughn, Stephen Merchant, Jack Lowden
Description: A former wrestler and his family make a living performing at small venues around the country while his kids dream of joining World Wrestling Entertainment.
Review: There are families where all the member devote themselves to the same passion or hobby and the entire family will be dedicated to this activity. For Rick Knight, his wife Julia and kids Zak and Saraya, it’s wrestling. They run a wrestling school in Norwich and both kids are big fans of the WWE.
The real Saraya managed to become the youngest Diva-champion for the WWE, as her alter ego Paige. She was only 21 when she won. And she didn’t only grow to become a phenomenon, she managed to make the sport popular with women.
The story of a simple girl growing up in a warm, working class family is gold for film makers. Especially when it’s based on a true story and they can add Dwayne Johnson to it. It forms the base for “Fighting with My Family”, which is directed by comedian Stephen Merchant.
The life of the Knight family is fully focused on show wrestling. Rick and Julia wrestled themselves and now have all hopes for their children Zak and Saraya. When they get a call from the WWE, after they saw a video of them in action, Zak and Saraya are invited for try-outs. It’s a dream come true. But for one this dream ends quickly, because only Saraya manages to go on to the next round and travel to Florida for a training camp.
That wrestling is based on mutual trust and agreements isn’t enough. Merchant shows that wrestling is a very complex sport. When former models, dancers and actors enter the ring, Saraya judges them, because they never wrestled. But Saraya herself has a lot to learn about showmanship and learns that these ‘pretty faces’ have more to it than just that.
Because this ‘American world’ is showed from the perspective of a down-to-earth British family, the film has a lot more heart and humor to it. It could have easily become a typical Hollywood film with juvenile slapstick jokes. But with a lot of humor and ability to put things into perspective we see a stranger that stands out among the American fashion dolls because of her nonchalant appearance, jet-black hair and piercings.
“Fighting with My Family” was made with a lot of love and has a lot of heart. The direct humor, the sympathetic character and the great story of Paige make this comedic true story a very enjoyable film that I absolutely loved.
Rating: 4 / 5
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