Fighting With My Family is a strange beast: a comedy drama biopic made by and for British comedy nerds and pro wrestling nerds. It sounds like a match made in studio committee hell (“John Cena’s funny, let’s make him the next Mr. Bean!”), but is instead an endearing passion project for all involved. And did I mention Dwayne Johnson plays himself as well as his semi-retired wrestling persona, “The Rock?”
I’d like to say at the outset that I came to this movie from the British comedy nerd angle. I had never even heard of the wrestling star Paige, and I’m sure there was a Marvel movie’s worth of WWE Easter eggs that flew right over my head (this is a WWE Studios production, after all). I haven’t watched wrestling since it was the WWF, and yes, I have been guilty of sliding my thick glasses up the bridge of the nose I was looking down to decry another person’s idea of “fun” because I had so little of it in my life at the time.
But I digress. This movie is a ton of fun. Frequent Ricky Gervais collaborator Stephen Merchant wrote and directed this true story of outcast wrestling family the Knights of Norwich England. Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead, Hott Fuzz) looks great with a mohawk as Ricky, the ex-con-turned-amateur wrestler patriarch of the bunch. His wife, Julia (Lena Headey, Game of Thrones, Dread), is his partner in life and in the ring, matching him jab for jab both physically and verbally. Together they make an unapologetically crass couple and are all the more lovable for it. Their children, Zak and Saraya, were born into the wrestling life, and as young adults have become the stars of the family company’s World Association of Wrestling local events, as well as trainers to other young riff-raff with dreams of stardom in spandex. When WWE Smackdown comes to the O2 in London, holding tryouts before the main event, Zak and Saraya hop in the WAW van to chase their collective dreams of becoming wrestling royalty.
Wrestling fans may already know the rest of the story, but for others, it’s best to go in fresh. Director Stephen Merchant’s comedy background permeates the entire film, but the resulting drama and, dare I admit, visceral triumph of that fateful night at the O2 are stirring. Vince Vaughan brings a believable aura of exhausted-by-experience as the no-nonsense coach Hutch, while Jack Lowden and Florence Pugh are both near-perfect as brother and sister Zak and Saraya. For what is superficially a very typical sports movie (underdog overcomes adversity via montage, emerges victorious), the standout performances, writing, and inspiring source material make Fighting With My Family a hilarious and moving example of why clichés become clichés in the first place: because when they work, there’s nothing better.
