“Fighting With My Family’ is directed by Stephen Merchant and stars Florence Pugh, Lena Headey, and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. This film is a real life story about WWE wrestler Saraya Knight, who comes from an eccentric family of Gypsies and all have the passion of being wrestlers. When Saraya gets a chance in the ‘Big Leagues’, however her brother Zak, who has trained alongside her, doesn’t. Will her er family dynamic shift as she decides whether to chase her dreams or sit on the sidelines. In this surprisingly entertaining and charming film, Florence Pugh gives a standout performance.
It took time for me to give this film a watch, mainly due to the stigma with wrestling and me not really ever being a fan of the sport. A film that was mainly about wrestling just didn’t seem too entertaining to me. What I really loved about this film was how easy and approachable the sport was to a novice and uneducated spectator. The way the showed both the siblings passion for wresting was really inspiring, and elevated this from a silly fight movie to a respectable look at a family dynamic shifting once one of them gets the fame all of them are looking for.
There are a lot of great performances in this film but the standout comes from Florence Pugh. She is vulnerable, tough, and full of charisma in this role and I really loved watching her in her wrestling dynamic. Her brother, played by Jack Lowden was also a standout performance especially when he acted alongside Vince Vaughn’s character, the coach who decided to not let Zak move forward in the career. I liked the parents, played by Nick Frost and Lena Heady. The family felt very authentic and the cast all worked together really well.
If there was anything I would say could’ve been a little better, it would be nice to have the 2nd act edited down a little bit, as some moments felt repetitive and scenes before it could easily have resolved what the additional scenes were taking additional run time to. But overall, this is a really good film that surprised me and one that I’d recommend to anyone who wants a feel good sports film.
I’m giving ‘Fighting With My Family’ a 8/10