First Take: Fighting With My Family- so wrestling’s not real then.

SYNOPSIS: A former wrestler and his family make a living performing at small venues around the country while his kids dream of joining the WWE.

Wrestling. Something which pulls in 3 million viewers (ish) every Monday night in America. Back in the day here in England, it was the go-to for Saturday afternoons- last year’s Walk Like a Panther handled that aspect of the business. Naturally, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson had to make a film about it sometime- and it was a Channel 4 documentary about the Bevis family, and their girl who defied expectations by signing with WWE at the age of 18, that provided the story for this film. I did my research before seeing this one, and did it effect my enjoyment of it? Hell no. Because even non-wrestling fans can get behind this underdog story.

Johnson roped in Stephen Merchant to write and direct the film based on that documentary, and he does a very good job at both tasks- it is paced very well, clocking in at a tight 1 hour 48 minutes of great humour (passing the 6 laugh test easily) and storytelling- the only issue is how rushed the final act felt. Now, some insider info here- this film solely focuses on Paige’s journey to what they call the ‘main roster’ of WWE programming, so if you’re expecting to see her whole story (including her retirement after last year’s WrestleMania), look elsewhere- but this is a highly fictionalised version of events; something which die hard fans of the WWE product will have issues with. It is shot brilliantly by Remi Adesfarin, and the score from Vik Sharma (featuring contributions by Blur’s lead guitarist Graham Coxon) fits the film pretty nicely.

Leading the cast is Florence Pugh, who is incredibly well cast as the main actor in this film (her likeness is very close to the real Paige based on what I’ve seen), and working alongside her is Nick Frost and Lena Headey as her unique parents, Jack Lowden as her brother, as well as Vince Vaughn, and a few cameos from Merchant, Johnson and a few other key WWE talents- which I won’t spoil here for obvious reasons. Obviously with the guys at Film4 involved, this film does have a lot of potential that is rightly built upon, and as they continue to do, they’ve put out another brilliant release.

THE VERDICT

The Rock has wanted to make this film for years. And it’s obvious why now that I’ve seen it. It’s got humour, some heartfelt moments, and a story that even the most mainstream of cinemagoers can engage with- so once again, it’s another home run. Whether it’ll continue to do well once Captain Marvel hits cinemas is another story.

RATING: 4.5/5