Une famille sur le ring

Although I'm a casual wrestling fan of over 20 years, I wasn't really planning on seeing this. Paige was a good wrestler, but her life story wasn't something I had any interest in. However, even if a lot of stuff might of been "enhanced," the movie doesn't fail to be entertaining. There's a surprisingly good amount of sharp wit and one-liners without being too screwball and keeping the drama intact. All the cast is great, especially Vince Vaughn as the coach who has to dash the recruits' dreams.

But I thought it glossed over too much of what made her special enough to rise in the first place. Sure she had the talent, but if you want to know how she made jump to champion then you're going to be disappointed. So they could've expanded a bit more on that.

Overall, it was a fun time and I can give a hearty recommendation even if you don't care for wrestling.

I watched this at home on BluRay from my public library. When it first came out the title threw me, I don't like seeing movies of families fighting. But I didn't understand, this is about a family where mom, dad, brother, and sister are all wrestlers.

It is based on the true story of a real British family. Florence Pugh (who I found so good in the 2016 Lady Macbeth) plays the lead character, Saraya Knight, who longed to get a break and get into the WWE as a featured wrestler. When she gets the chance she finds out it is harder than she ever imagined, including leaving her home and family behind to train in the USA.

All of the first half-hour and much of the remainder is in England, as such it contains much of the uniqueness of British characters, British humor, and British mannerisms. Viewers who don't appreciate that may not enjoy the movie, but I enjoyed it very much. There is a very nice story here and the actors bring it to life very well.

One of my favorite movies of 2019.

Edit: I watched it again in March 2020, a really entertaining movie.

This is a very British working class comedy which centres around a wrestling mad family and their dreams of stardom. Its based on a true story and roughly around a documentary of the family made recently. At the helm is one of the writers of The Office, the superior UK version not the US remake. Also on board are a few American actors and Nick Frost from Spaced. The tone of the movie is something like the commitments or Full Monty, you may need to be British to get some of the humour. Fortunately not all movies are made with the states in mind. It is very funny however some of the language and scenes of violence may not make it suitable for smaller kids. Also I have no interest or knowledge of wrestling but that didnt detract from the enjoyment of the movie. This is not a mega-bucks The Rock vehicle, its a low key small budget UK flick with no real surprises but a few laughs along the way. Its quite enjoyable. Also the last thing, the reviewer know as "thebricks" used the final section of his review to call the UK a dump and suggest the people here just drink and fight which is highly offensive to us in the UK. The fact that despite it being flagged twice for being offensive and off topic shows the mods do not seem to care about xenophobia. That being the case then I reckon the US is a dump full of obese low IQ xenophobes who don't understand anything outside of their own trailer park. This movie is not for them.

I'm never been a big fan of professional wrestling, but Fighting with My Family does a good job of making you care about the characters, which, in turn, makes you care about their dreams of making it into the WWE. I was really impressed by the performances of Florence Pugh and Jack Lowden. Yes, this movie is largely fictionalized but, then again, so is pro wrestling.

Full disclosure first, I am a wrestling fan and I knew the majority of Paige's story and how the WWE and pro-wrestling works before seeing this.

The Knight family love professional wrestling. It has changed the lives of Julia (Lena Headey) and Ricky (Nick Frost) and their passion has transferred to their three children, particularly to their son Zak (Jack Lowden) and daughter Saraya (Florence Pugh). Having grown up performing for the families Norwich based federation, a shot at the big time comes when both children are asked to attend try-outs for World Wrestling Entertainment.

All that said, you don't really need to know anything about wrestling to enjoy "Fighting with My Family". It's a relatable story of someone from an unlikely background overcoming the odds to find success far from home. It's has a very British sense of humour, with lots of jokes with swearwords or about class differences, both between the Knights and Zak's prospective in-laws and between Paige and her peers once she's over in the performance centre. It probably has slightly too much swearing to be a real family film, but is still pretty gentle in its overall tone and themes. What makes the film successful is the performances of actors in the key roles. Frost and Headey are great, as is Florence Pugh, who continues to be a star on the rise after her performance in "Little Drummer Girl" last year. It's Jack Lowden, however, who has the most to do and excels with it, dealing with the disappointments and temptations that his life gives him as a parallel to his sisters.

That perhaps leads to me the films biggest weakness, despite how unlikely it seems, Paige's journey isn't perhaps that extraordinary. She's way more talented and experienced than any of her colleagues but struggles a bit to overcome her own awkwardness. It's not so much an emotional rollercoaster as it is a jittering ski lift. To combat that, we get the opposing journey of Zak which, if anything, is actually more interesting, as he struggles with fatherhood, disillusionment and jealously before coming to terms and reconciling with his family.

"Fighting with My Family" is an entertaining and funny film if a little slight and though I can't imagine it's going to be anybody's favourite film of all time, it's a lot of fun to watch and I'm sure would be enjoyed by anyone.

A little bonus if you are a fan of the UK wrestling scene from the past few years is spotting cameos from current stars. Dave Mastiff and Kip Sabian are two of the most obvious but there's a few more (and a dig a Pete Dunne which is funny, if slightly confusing).