‘Fighting With My Family’ is a biographical, sports, comedy-drama film. The film chronicles the rise of WWE superstar and the youngest Diva’s Champion, Paige (Florence Pugh). It shows her origins wrestling with her family in Norwich, the hard NXT training process in America and finally her finest moment when she won the title.
Now before I get into all the things I love about this film; I want to mention a few things I felt held it back. For me I found the Paige misjudging the other female wrestlers and then feeling left out because she isn’t like them, storyline to be a little played out; the reveal that the other wrestlers are actually good people once Paige opened up to them is painfully obvious- it has been done in 1000 sports movies before. However, I do understand that when adapting a true story, the filmmakers are limited in where they can take the plot without it becoming untrue.
The main thing I liked about this film is the development Paige’s family got. It would have been easy to have her family as background characters and not focus on them, but rather than do that, the film flushes each one of them out nicely. They all have their individual motivations and you understand them, her brother (Jack Lowden), for example has dreamed of being in the WWE since he was a boy and over the course of the film, he gets that dream crushed, but then learns that there is more to life than fame.
Though this isn’t a fresh arc as it has been done time and again before it is nice to see the supporting characters in Paige’s life get some attention and development.
Florence Pugh as Paige is fantastic, she perfectly captures that underdog spirit as well as the idea of being an outsider that is looking for somewhere to belong; you can see the emotional journey of this film play out on Pugh’s face over its runtime and it is very satisfying. She emotes well. She also has a believable physicality that makes all of her wrestling scenes look real and authentic.
The two scene stealers of this film for me are Vince Vaughn and Dwayne Johnson. Vaughn’s Hutch Morgan has a real sense of vulnerability to him and he comes across as a protective figure to Paige as well as an antagonist at times, giving him a nice duality. Johnson on the other hand is great comedic support he brings a lot of laughs and entertainment value to any scene he is in.
Overall, this film is a delightfully charming sports film about the love of wrestling the cost of fame and the rise of a very talented young woman- in two senses.
Pros.
Vaughn and The Rock.
The Development of Paige’s Family.
The Emotion.
Pugh Is Paige.
Cons.
Cliched At Times.
4/5
Reviewed by Luke
Another Millennial Reviewer 