Fighting With My Family ★★★½
THE term crowd-pleaser tends to be used in a negative way to describe a film with little substance that most casual film-goers will enjoy.
I tend to think the opposite and use it to describe a film that entertains in every possible way without any offence.
Comic actor and writer Stephen Merchant’s directorial debut, Fighting With My Family, fits the definition perfectly.
This story of two English youngsters who try out for international fame in the wrestling entertainment industry doesn’t put a foot wrong.
It’s well conceived from a true story, written with a great sense of comedy and fondness for all the characters, directed with energy and pace and very well acted by the entire cast.
Nick Frost and Lena Heady play Ricky and Julia Knight, a married, working-class couple living in Norwich. Both have had tough backgrounds but love each other very much, amid the constant struggle to financially support their children Zak and Saraya.
All share an obsession with wrestling, specifically the American style steeped in show-business, and the entire family’s main source of income is their wrestling troupe.
As well as staging amateur, WWE-style fight nights they provide cheap lessons for a rag-tag but enthusiastic bunch of local youths.
The most obsessed is Zak, played by Jack Lowden, who dreams of becoming a WWE star on television. His aspirations have rubbed off on Saraya (Florence Pugh) who is a little quieter but just as determined.
While both eventually get their shot at fame, only one moves on to an intensive training camp in California while the other must come to terms with both their dream being crushed and jealousy over the other’s progression.
Lowden and particularly Pugh are utterly convincing in their roles and create a strong chemistry, despite the fact they aren’t on screen for a large chunk of the running time.
Frost has many of the funniest lines while Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) is typically charismatic in his couple of scenes and Vince Vaughan is equally good as a WWE talent scout/trainer.
There are plenty of laughs throughout and genuine emotion and tension in the climax filmed in front of an actual WWE major event crowd.
A lot of fun.