Fighting with My Family (2019)

Fighting with My Family (2019)

 

7/10

Starring

Florence Pugh

Lena Headey

Nick Frost

Jack Lowden

Vince Vaughn

Dwayne Johnson

 

Directed by Stephen Merchant

 

The movie just pushes past the norm to deliver its own message. You can see all the cliché playing out, but the movie does not allow that to stop it, which is thanks to its pacing and script.

This is one hell of a fantastic time in front of the screen. I wonder why I never heard of this film last year. The movie does all the necessary things needed to make you love what it was trying to do and to carry you through the life of WWE superstar Saraya “Paige” Knight. This movie is a biographical sports comedy-drama which in turn is based on a documentary on the life of Paige. It shows us how Paige was able to go from wrestling in England to the WWE. The acting along by Florence Pugh as Paige is enough for me to ask you to go see this film. But it is not her performance alone that does this movie justice, its well written screenplay by Stephen Merchant who also directed were the needed touch.

The movie introduces us to the Knight family, a family of wrestlers who go about England doing shows. The father has been sending tapes of his children to the WWE with the hope of getting them signed. One unexpected day, the children were asked to come audition.

Saraya was picked and her brother Zak was dropped. This was devastating to Zak whose dream has been to be in the WWE, in fact we learn that Saraya is as good as she is now because of Zak who also trains young children.

Saraya picked her stage name, Paige and went to the training school. The movie then takes us through all the drama that is in the training school and the difficulty that there is in becoming a WWE superstar. We get to see Paige grow to be a better person watching this movie and be sure we do get to see some fight glimpse.

I will like to say this movie paints the WWE in the good light. But reality is far from it. I will direct you to go do your own studying and probably watch John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight take on the WWE to get an idea on what it is all about.

That said, here is a movie I am sure you will enjoy when you see it. The emotional rollercoaster with the comedy makes this one movie you will not mind seeing the second time just to get the feel again.

In case you need another reason to see it, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson features in a small role in it, in more than one scene.