Fighting With My Family is a sports-comedy-drama based on the real story of a girl from Norwich who became a WWE wrestler. It stars Florence Pugh as the central character, Nick Frost and Lena Headey as her parents and Jack Lowden as her brother. Written and Directed by Stephen Merchant and executive produced by Dwayne Johnson, who also cameos in the film.
As a sports-comedy, it works well. We see Paige’s journey from Norwich to America and overcoming adversity to achieve her ambition. Florence Pugh is good, as is Jack Lowden. There are some funny lines too, which are decent.
My problems with the film are really more problems with WWE as a thing. If you are a big fan of wrestling you will certainly get a lot more out of it than I did. Personally, I find WWE a bit pointless and silly and a bit scummy in how it uses scantily-clad women to sell its product, but that is a problem with WWE rather than the film.
Vince Vaughn slightly phones in his performance as the coach and the final big WWE fight looks a bit strange in how its shot, the main character almost looks like she’s not actually there, but was CGIed in later. But I don’t really blame Stephen Merchant for this, its probably just because of a low budget.
So, if you are a wrestling fan then I would definitely recommend it, you’ll get a lot out of it, but if not then it’s ok, perfectly watchable but nothing amazing. 3 Stars.
Movie Night 