Movie Review: "Fighting With My Family" Is a Winning Comedy from The Rock

The true-ish story of WWE fighter Paige comes to cinemas with the help of our collective guardian angel, Dwayne Johnson.

If Dwayne Johnson occasionally popped into your life to share some inspirational words, or reinforce the strength and value of your personality, would there be any limit to what you could achieve?

The answer is 'no'. Also, even questioning him is insulting. The Rock believes in you, why wouldn’t you believe in The Rock?

To be validated by him would be like getting the cheat code to life. It’d be like taking a swig of invincibility potion. It would give you permanent 'galaxy brain'. It’s what they mean by 'sicko mode'.

And, as Fighting With My Family suggests, it’d be enough to motivate you to break down the barriers of the wrestling federation WWE and become an unlikely champ at the age of 21.

Okay, the film fudges with the true story of Saraya Bevis, better known as former WWE Divas title-holder Paige. Yet, when the wish-fulfilment fantasy is this sweet and empowering, who complains? Saraya didn’t actually meet Johnson while coming up from her humble roots, but he did buy the rights to her tale after seeing a doco about her wrestling family, produced this biopic, and then cast himself as her jacked Jiminy Cricket. It’s a fiction, and also one of the best f***ing ideas I’ve ever heard.

Megastar-in-waiting Florence Pugh plays Saraya, growing up in Norwich, England as part of a wrestling dynasty, of a sort. Her parents "Rowdy Ricky" (Nick Frost) and "Sweet Saraya" (Lena Headey) are small-time fighters and promoters with their own makeshift wrestling organisation, mostly for troubled local youths. Still, they dream big, training the gothic Saraya and her brother "Zodiac Zak" (Jack Lowden) from childhood for a big-league audition with America's enormous WWE.

Unfortunately, the brusque recruiter (Vince Vaughn) only invites Saraya—now adopting the stage name "Paige"—to Florida for further training, leaving Zak behind in Norwich. At a loss, Zak starts spiralling, while Saraya struggles to compete with the likes of the cheerleaders, dancers and models seeking entry to the main WWE roster. So, she dyes her black hair blonde and applies a fake tan. Wrestling may be fixed, but as an extremely patient Dwayne Johnson says during a chance encounter, the crowd can tell when you’re a fake. Be "the first you," he adds gently. Please everyone thank Mr. Johnson on his Instagram for speaking right into your souls.

Johnson willed this movie into existence, and willed himself onto the poster, despite basically having a glorified cameo. However, the writer and director is Stephen Merchant, of The Office, and with every project Merchant makes without Ricky Gervais, it becomes glaringly apparent who the major talent really is. If Gervais provides unfiltered cruelty, Merchant provides heart, and Fighting With My Family has heaps of it. He balances the sincerity with off-the-cuff, sometimes spiky humour, using Johnson’s good nature as a north star. It helps that he has a solid cast, especially the winning Pugh, who buys into the absurdity of it all without undercutting Saraya’s drive, professional desire or personal growth. (Mercifully, the picture puts aside any naff romantic subplots, in favour of more body-slams.)

Fighting With My Family is a shameless underdog sports flick, and often, an extremely generous corporate advertisement for the WWE. (It is co-produced by WWE Studios, whose previous efforts include mash-ups like Surf’s Up 2: WaveMania and vehicles for Shawn Michaels.) But cynicism, or fact-checking, has no place in wrestling, and Fighting With My Family, a bit like the Netflix show GLOW, is so bloody great it could convert just about anyone into a fan. I grew up watching the WWE, before becoming a lapsed viewer. Now I am born again, praise Johnson.

4/5

In Australian cinemas 21 March. Rated M for crude sexual humour and violence.