How far are you willing to go to make your biggest dream a reality? Would you leave your home, your family, your country to travel to the other side of the world all alone and do the hard yards to reach your top of the world? Would you have the strength to do that?
Fighting With Your Family isn’t your typical WWE universe film which would be full of bland, predictable and over the top violence, with a side of cringy one liners. Fighting With My Family is the polar opposite and it honestly is a welcome change.
Fighting with My Family is directed by English actor and comedian Stephen Merchant, and is based on the 2012 documentary The Wrestlers: Fighting with My Family. In the documentary we meet the Bevis family, a family of outcast who’s whole life is professional wrestling. The documentary also covers the origin and rise of WWE Diva: Paige, the in ring persona of Seraya Bevis. In Fighting With My Family, the role of Seraya is played by Florence Pugh.
Florence is the obvious highlight of the film and for a good reason. Her powerful performance as Seraya is inspiring, not to mention the dynamic she has with co-star Jack Lowden who plays Seraya‘s brother Zak. Their chemistry is vibrant, heartfelt, but also intense. Nick Frost and Julia Headey play the roles of Seraya and Zak‘s parents, Ricky and Julia, offering comedic relief and lightening the mood during the more tense and serious moments of the film.
Merchant’s film direction delivers so much struggle, emotion, breaking points and triumph while not feeling rushed at all. His storytelling skills are top notch, which is displayed through the character progression of Seraya into Paige. What we witness is like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the rise of a true champion.
I strongly believe that this is what Merchant intended for his audiences to walk away with; the feeling of being motivated, inspired, to keep fighting to make your biggest dream become reality, but to also show that although life is a tough battle, if you just hang in there it will all work out.
It was also great to see the inclusion of some of the WWE superstars make cameos in the film such as Big Show and Shamus, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson who ended up being a big part of the story.
I really have nothing negative to say about this film because I really enjoyed it. It had a perfectly driven story, strong cast, engaging plot turns and complications, humour and also very heartfelt inspiring moments. Fighting with My Family is definitely WWE’s strongest film to date and would be considered a major turning point in their pictures.
Entirely in a league of its own, Fighting With My Family packs a punch in delivering an inspirational movie. I also feel that it is very important to point out that this film isn’t just for WWE fans alone. This film is for everyone and can be a relatable story for all walks of life. So put the wrestling behind you and see this film for its heartwarming, fantastic yet true story.