Fighting With My Family (2019) Dir: Stephen Merchant
- Ridley Coote
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
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I have been a fan of wrestling since I was a teenager, and have kept up with it rigorously pretty much that whole time. As such, the prospect of a film about wrestling always interests me. With that said, sometimes they are really quite terrible, so I'm also usually a little cautious as well. This 2019 film, directed by British comedian Stephen Merchant, and produced in part by WWE Studios, is fairly popular, and seems to be one of the better wrestling films out there. As such, it seemed like a worthwhile film to at least check out.
If I'm totally honest, I didn't really know what to expect from this, but I was hoping at least to see that the wrestling scenes were done correctly. For the most part, I thought they were, in fairness. I found it a little annoying that some of the in-ring costumes changed so significantly, but I doubt it matters to anyone less familiar with wrestling. Aesthetically speaking, the film was just fine - not noteworthy, by any means, but certainly adequate.
The narrative changed some aspects of Paige's story, but honestly it worked from a structural point of view, as well as an entertainment one, so I didn't mind it. I found it a lot more emotional than I had anticipated, which is testament to the effectiveness of the storytelling. The film was also pretty amusing, albeit a little juvenile - but then, that's an issue of taste as much as anything else.
Florence Pugh was charismatic and energetic in this film's lead role. I wouldn't say her portrayal of Paige was exact, but she did make it feel more palatable to a wider, likely more casual, film audience, which is no bad thing. Pugh almost always makes her films better for being in them, and I think that was definitely the case here as well. She is a true talent.
When it came to the supporting cast, the performances were fine, but nobody really excelled in any way. I found Lena Headey and Nick Frost an entertaining pair, who had natural chemistry. Vince Vaughn kind of annoyed me, but his character had a role to play, and he did the job well enough. I was very mixed on Jack Lowden's acting - he had some good moments, but he was inconsistent, and lacked charisma. The film also featured some brief cameos from various WWE wrestlers, most notably being Dwayne Johnson, as well as the likes of Big Show, Sheamus, The Miz, and Zelina Vega, aka Thea Trinidad, albeit she was not portraying herself.
Overall, I found this to be a pretty fun little comedy, although it wasn't without its issues. It did what it set out to do, which was to tell a unique underdog story with an usual set of characters in an entertaining way. The film was fairly fun, but didn't really do much for me beyond light entertainment. Even so, I can see why people like it, and I can see why it's one of the more well-reviewed wrestling films.
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