Fighting With My Family: DVD Review

Merchant delivers an emotionally-poignant and uplifting WWE biopic, that combines his unique comedic abilities with an empowering underdog story

Jack Lowden and Florence Pugh in 'Fighting with my Family' (CREDIT: MGM)

by Jack Linsdell

When Stephen Merchant's WWE-biopic Fighting With My Family debuted professional wrestler Paige's story into UK cinemas, I was quick to get a screening and was unable to publish my review of it afterwards. And now, coinciding with it's DVD release on July 1st, I'm informing you how sublime this film is so you can grab a physical copy for yourself, and if you haven't seen it say to you "What have you been doing?" in a firm voice!

So, the story starts in 2002 Norwich, England in which we find the Bevis family - passionate and avid wrestling fans, who run a pay-by-view, amateur wrestling competition locally to which the main stars are their two older teenagers Zak and Saraya (who adopts Paige as her wrestling name later on in the film). The parents Julia (Game of Throne's Lena Headey) and Patrick (Shaun of the Dead's Nick Frost) have come from a rough background and their dark past looms over the family, although their love for their children remains absolute and encourage them both to trial for the WWE enrolment. Struggling for money and with Zak's girlfriend expecting their first child, the family are desperate for one of the children to get accepted and earn them money and opportunities. However, when Paige achieves enrolment and Zak doesn't, a divide between the siblings threatens to pull the whole family apart and destroy everyone's dreams and responsibilities. 

The screenplay penned by Merchant after Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson (a producer on the film and featuring as himself in a small supporting role) approached him with the family's story after seeing it on a documentary, follows the traditional sports underdog biopic (think Rocky or The Karate Kid) structure, but also draws aspects from the coming-of-age/family drama genre to which regular readers will know I'm a massive fan of. With seriously compelling and emotionally-profound moments (like the scene when Zak lashes out his frustration at failing to get another WWE interview in his car) charting the cost of success, chasing your dreams and not giving up in life - things everyone can relate well too. Paige suffers her own conflicts, as having achieved her dream, keeping track of who she is becomes difficult and fitting in at the cost of losing her unique identity/personality thematically resonates too - especially when she changes her appearance from her punk/rock-esq. black hair to straight blonde to fit in with the perceived "more attractive" wrestling candidates which a lot of young girls (or parents to young girls) can well relate too. Merchant's screenplay is full of loveable characters, uplifting themes and his contagious sense of humour is layered well into every scene, line of dialogue and character, serving itself well as a comedy and providing a deep level of entertainment. Merchant (whose Hello Ladies series which he co-wrote, directed and starred in for HBO and his feature debut Cemetery Junction which he co-penned and directed with long-time The Office and Extras collaborator Ricky Gervais are also outstanding pieces of work) is proving himself to be more than a master of comedy; he's proven he can take the giant leap into film successfully and use comedy as a device to tell deeply emotional and compelling stories. 

The performances are knockout (pun intended!), with Florence Pugh proving herself to be quite the outstanding young British actress, capturing the vulnerability, strength and determination of Paige so visually and sincerely throughout. The rest of this quite ensemble cast including powerhouse performances from Jack Lowden (Dunkirk), Headey, Frost, Vince Vaughan (The Delivery Man) and a small cameo from Merchant himself all deliver and compliment Pugh nicely - they all have great chemistry with each other. It's one thing to be in the safe hands of a filmmaker (Merchant) narrative and direction wise, but you need the actors on film's like this to truly elevate the material and give you that depth - here they all stepped up to the plate. Also worth mentioning is the physicality of Pugh and Lowden specifically. They performed all their own wrestling stunts, training for weeks, and it really does show - considering they aren't professional wrestlers and didn't have long to train, they did a remarkable job and you don't question them being Paige and Zak ever as a result!

Lastly, we can't but fail to mention the awesome finale! Indeed, Merchant and co. filmed Paige's first real WWE fight after an actual WWE match had finished, getting permission to use the stadium for an hour and use the 10,000 big crowd of diehard wrestling fans. It really shows, as the atmosphere, scale and true sense of "wow, this is all in-camera" makes this such a great climax to a low-budget British film by providing us with the same sense of majestic awe and wild excitement Paige must have felt stepping into that wring for the first time. That being said, Merchant handles all the wrestling sequences really well, and the film's exploration of the true, behind-the-scenes nature of wrestling feels like relatively uncharted waters for a film, and this makes it even more special and unique.

So, Fighting With My Family is a true romp, it offers a combination of outrageously funny comedy, loveable characters and a compelling, emotional and uplifting underdog sports drama, packaged with excellently staged wrestling sequences and an ensemble cast to die for. This will make a great Friday night film, entertaining the hell out of everyone and well worth a watch. So, you can be you can be watching with your family, Fighting With My Family when it comes out on VOD/DVD/Blu-ray on July 1st. 

5/5 STARS