**** outta *****

4 outta 5

Fighting With My Family is a standard sports rags to riches story but it’s one of the few sports movies that takes place in professional wrestling, treating the subject with realism and a quippy script. Produced by WWE Studios and wrestling superstar Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and written and directed by Stephen Merchant (the co-creator of The Office), Fighting is probably much better than a simple WWE promotional puff film. Still, that sheen of officially licenced mythmaking is here and it is sort of in love with sports movies clichés and too many montages yet this is a heartfelt story about someone trying to make it and how it effects their family. With lots of body-slamming.

Saraya (Florence Pugh) and her brother Zack (Jack Lowden) work with their parents, Patrick (Nick Frost) and Julia (Lena Headey), in a local basement wrestling promotion in England but both Saraya and Zack dream of making it to World Wrestling Entertainment. After repeated submissions of their demo reel and nattering at WWE phone lines, both Saraya and Zack get a tryout overseen by Coach Hutch Morgan (Vince Vaughn). Their dreams look even more in reach when they get a few minutes with The Rock (Johnson) himself, which Hutch dismisses them from, barking “This isn’t a Make A Wish foundation!” At their tryout Zack is dismissed yet Saraya is accepted to the WWE trainee league, NXT. This makes her parents very happy while her brother is emotionally torn apart. Off in the NXT leagues, Saraya gives herself the wrestling stage name of Paige (based on a character from Charmed) and trains to make it to the big time, unless she is dismissed or quits along the way.

There really are not any surprises in how the movie plays out but it’s done very earnestly. It’s a very funny script with some random great asides like when it’s revealed that Saraya’s dad is capitalizing on her sudden fame by turning his gym into a Paige merchandise sweatshop or when Saraya impresses Americans with her accent by reading a grim story in the newspaper. Some characters say that professional wrestling is fake and the family and looks shocked, declaring that if it was fake the dad wouldn’t have broken half the bones in his body. Wrestling’s performance aspect makes it more of a dance of intricate moves between two partners they must follow or someone could get hurt. There is elaborate wrestling terminology here like when Saraya is fighting against a wannabe wrestling Diva who actually hits her so Saraya gives the wannabe a “receipt” which is a small smack telling them to watch their moves. Where Saraya returns to her home wrestling promotion and has a match with her brother pushes the match and doing stunts that could get her injured.

Director Merchant provides quite a lot of training scenes. In one awesome bit, Coach Morgan tells the trainees they have to get their mic skills to a fine point and proceeds to chew out the bad smack talk. When Paige tires Morgan says her rap was great when he first heard it 20 years ago. There are a few times when Paige gets on the mic in front of a big crowd and she can’t bring herself to say anything which is kind of heartbreaking. Vaughn is basically a stern drill sergeant with some great put downs, and at one point he says why he rejected Zack from the WWE that reveals his own tragic backstory.

The performances are all very good. Pugh as Saraya is an outcast in the world of the model and cheerleader trainee WWE Divas and she’s very empathetic. Frost and Headey make for an amusing mismatched husband and wife who both love wrestling and each other. The movie doesn’t shy away from that they’re pushing their own dreams on their kids with Saraya saying that her mom named her daughter after her own wrestling stage name. Lowden as Zack gets to be stuck back at home and he represses his anger which has an adverse affect on the kids he’s training.

Johnson may be a huge part of the marketing campaign, but he is relegated to about two scenes. In one of the best scenes, Saraya and Zack meet the Rock backstage as he patiently answers their questions until he eventually spits some classic Rock smackdown talk as Saraya looks in awe that she just had the honour of being dissed to her face by The Rock. Johnson is also featured prominently on the movie’s poster of him standing in the yard with the family which has an odd affect of the poster making it look like he’s the ticked off uninvited houseguest in a wacky comedy. Even though Dwayne Johnson had dropped “The Rock” from his stage name, this is a WWE officially certified biography with the participation of WWE films so it would have been fun if he had been credited as “The Rock” or Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson like in his early films but he is just credited by his real name.

Fighting With My Family is a compelling dramedy about a sports entertainment that is often unjustly derided. While it mostly sticks to the standard sports movie formula it is an emotional journey. It has both heart and (staged) head punches.