Featured Blu-ray and DVD Review: Fighting With My Family

May 14, 2019

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Fighting With My Family

Fighting With My Family opened in limited release and topped the theater average chart during its opening weekend. However, it really struggled when it expanded wide the next week. Clearly it’s not “too art house” for mainstream audiences, so is there another reason the film failed to connect with audiences? And is it worth checking out for those who missed it in theaters?

The Movie

The film begins with young Paige fighting with her brother over what to watch on TV. He wants to watch wrestling; she doesn’t. Their parents are Rowdy Ricky Knight and Sweet Saraya... By the way, I’m using their stage names, because otherwise it gets too confusing. When their parents start complimenting Paige on her fighting technique and then her appearance, she immediately knows they want something from her. One of their under-18 wrestlers dropped out and they want her to wrestle in her place. At first she refuses, because she has no interest in wrestling. She especially doesn’t want to wrestle a strange girl. Her brother suggests he dress up as a girl and they wrestle. She’s still nervous about wrestling in front of a crowd, but when she hears the cheers, she becomes hooked.

We flash forward a few years later and the now grown Paige and her bother, Zak, are helping their parents’ wrestling company and they even help under-privileged kids by teaching them wrestling. Unfortunately, their parents’ company is struggling. Fortunately, they have a bit of a plan. They’ve sent tapes of Paige and Zak’s wrestling to the WWE hoping their kids could make a real living as wrestlers. It is even more imperative when Zak’s girlfriend, Courtney, is pregnant.

After an awkward and funny dinner with the potential in-laws, Hugh and Daphne, we return to the main plot. Paige and Zak get their shot to audition for the WWE. Zak is very confident, but Paige is a nervous wreck. She’s always had a bit of stage fright and the WWE is so much larger of a stage than what’s she’s used to. The pair get some advice from The Rock and then its on to the audition itself. Harry Morgan is the man in charge and he’s rather blunt to the applicants. In the end, he picks Paige to advance, but only Paige, thus ending Zak’s dream of being a WWE wrestler.

It also ends the plot summary, because we start hitting major spoilers there.

Biopics based on athletes tend to do about as well at the box office as the sport does in terms of TV ratings. This is usually the case, but I thought professional wresting was really popular, while this movie struggled at the box office. There’s no logical reason why this film shouldn’t have been a much bigger hit. The film is fantastic in nearly all parts, including a start-making performance by Florence Pugh as Paige. In fact, the whole cast is excellent and I especially loved The Rock’s cameo. I’m not a fan of wrestling, so I can’t say how hardcore fans will react to the wrestling moments, but I thought they were effective. Not only that, but I thought there was a great balance between the quieter and more dramatic family moments and the louder wrestling scenes.

The movie did have some faults, mostly minor ones. Firstly, it is an inspirational sports movie based on real life events. These movies are like romantic comedies or heist movies, in that they have a collection of clichés they are almost obligated to use. It wouldn’t be an inspirational sports movie without a training montage, for example. Most have a few of them. This is one of those movies. Additionally, some of the jokes don’t stick the landing; most do, but there are a couple of jokes that stand out in a bad way. Finally, the real Paige Knight is a lot more influential in changing women’s wrestling in the WWE and while they briefly touched on that in the movie, I would have liked to have seen more. The WWE likely wouldn’t have supported a movie that showed them treating female wrestling like an excuse for T&A rather than a serious part of the show.

The Extras

Extras begin with an audio commentary track with writer / director / actor Stephen Merchant. There are also six deleted / extended scenes with a total running time of nine minutes and three minutes of outtakes. A Family’s Passion is a nine-minute making of featurette. Finally, there’s Learning the Moves , a three-minute look at how Florence Pugh and the rest of the cast learned how to wrestle. That’s not a lot of extras, but the film did struggle to find an audience in theaters, so it is not unexpected.

The Verdict

Fighting With My Family is a stellar inspirational sports movie about a sport that is rarely featured in these movies. The DVD / Blu-ray doesn’t have a ton of extras, but it is still worth picking up.

Filed under: Video Review, Hannah Rae