Fighting with My Family(2019)

Name: Fighting with My Family
Director: Stephen Merchant
Genre: Biography, Comedy, Drama, Sport
Released: Feb 14, 2019
Cast: Stephen Merchant

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

PG-13
Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual material, language throughout, some violence and drug content
1h 48m

Release Date: Feb 14, 2019 | Wide

A-
7

A former wrestler and his family make a living performing at small venues around the country while his kids dream of joining World Wrestling Entertainment.

Releases

Original Release | Feb 14, 2019

Feb 22, 2019 | Wide

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Box Office Results

Results

Opening Weekend US & Canada:
$138,780
Total US & Canada:
$22,958,886
Total International
$18,544,506
Total Worldwide:
$41,503,392

Current Showtimes

orround

Sun May 31
Mon Jun 1
Tue Jun 2
Wed Jun 3
Thu Jun 4
Fri Jun 5
Sat Jun 6

Director & Top Cast

Stephen Merchant
Director

Stephen Merchant

Gallery

Technical Specifications

Aspect Ratio: 2.39 : 1

Other Details

Country of Origin: United Kingdom,United States

Language: English

Summaries

Plot Summary

In 2002, in Norwich, England, UK, 10-year-old Zak Bevis (Jack Lowden) is engrossed by the WWF (now WWE) King of the Ring pay-per-view event until his younger sister Saraya (Florence Pugh) changes the channel to her favorite program, Charmed. Wrestlers Rick and Julia Knight raise their children, Saraya and Zak, to follow in their footsteps. The siblings wrestle, urged on by their parents Rick (Nick Frost) and Julia (Lena Headey). Rick book the children for their first wrestling match (under the World Association of Wrestling Organization) where Saraya, initially reluctant to wrestle a boy, goes on to win as planned.At 18, competing under the ring name "Britani Knight", Saraya and her brother "Zak Zodiac" help their parents train prospective wrestlers while working toward their own promotion. They are regulars at the local wrestling circuits but are looking for a way to break into the big leagues. Rick did 8 years in prison for violent crimes and was on the verge of suicide when he met Julia. Together, they discovered wrestling and Rick gave up his violent ways to settle into a family life. Their unusual love story scandalizes the conservative parents (Hugh (Stephen Merchant) and Daphne (Julia Davis)) of Zak's girlfriend Courtney.Rick and Julia, struggling financially (to keep their wrestling gym open with the proceeds from their training business and the occasional wrestling matches that they organize), ask WWE trainer Hutch Morgan (Vince Vaughn) to sign the siblings. They send Morgan a tape of Zak and Britani, but struggle to get an appointment. Morgan calls the family out of the blue and finally agrees to a tryout before a SmackDown taping at The O2 Arena and tells Saraya to find a different name as they "already have a Britani". The siblings receive advice from Dwayne Johnson (who tells them to develop their own unique wrestling persona), and Saraya adopts the name Paige from her favorite character on Charmed. Saraya says that she loves the world of wrestling as it is her escape from the sad reality of life.The two try out with several other wrestlers and are all belittled by Morgan. He ultimately chooses Paige over the rest, despite her attempt to have Zak signed as well as Zak was the best wrestler among them all. Morgan forces Zak to return home after making it clear he will never be signed to the WWE, leaving Paige with no one to stick up for her. Zak falls into a depression. With her brother's encouragement, Paige leaves for America while Zak continues wrestling on the British independent circuit, assisting his parents' wrestling school, and tending to his girlfriend Courtney (Hannah Rae) and newborn son.Arriving at NXT in Florida, Paige has difficulty adjusting to the WWE style of entertainment - chiefly, the absence of inter-gender competition (as they are all models and not from a wrestling background) and the inexperience of her fellow female trainees Jeri-Lynn (Kim Matula), Kirsten (Aqueela Zoll), & Maddison (Ellie Gonsalves). Paige also struggles with performing choreographed promos as they clash with her own natural instincts and suffers from Morgan's constant belittlement of her mistakes.At an NXT live event and her in-ring debut, Paige is heckled by the crowd and freezes up, leaving the ring in tears. She decides to bleach her hair blonde and spray tan to look more like her fellow trainees, which only causes more friction between them. After failing an obstacle course, Paige lashes out at the trainees for gossiping about her when they were actually discussing Kirsten, who has been away from her daughter in order to give her a better life.A sympathetic Morgan then reveals to Paige the real reason he didn't let Zak sign up: the league would have forced him to work as a jobber, which would have ruined his health. Morgan implies that a similar experience forced him to give up on his own wrestling career.Believing that professional wrestling isn't worth it and that she'd have a much happier life helping her parents train other wrestlers, Paige decides to quit the WWE and return to her hometown. Morgan encourages Paige to quit and return to her family for a happier life. She travels home for the Christmas break. Paige discovers her parents are selling merchandise of her likeness without her permission and have booked her in a match against Zak scheduled for her Christmas break.Just before the match against her brother, Paige tells Zak she is leaving WWE. Angry that she is giving up the dream he failed to achieve himself, Zak goes off-script, defeats Paige and then tells their parents her plans to quit, devastating Ricky. After the family find Zak in a drunken bar fight, Paige admits that Morgan declined to sign Zak to protect him, and he needs to focus on what is important in life; his family and coaching children who look up to him. Paige changes her mind after Zak berates her for giving up on their shared dream and she returns to Florida and her original appearance.She drastically improves in training, befriending and encouraging her fellow trainees. Zak returns to training his parents' students. Morgan brings the trainees to WrestleMania XXX, where Paige is booked in a suite with The Rock and learns she will make her Raw debut the following night against WWE Divas Champion AJ Lee (Thea Trinidad), as recommended by Morgan. Paige makes her Raw debut and again freezes up, but Lee starts the match and unexpectedly puts the Divas Championship on the line. With her family watching on TV, Paige wins the match and the title, finally comfortable enough to say a promo, "This is MY house!".An epilogue explains that Paige remains the youngest Divas Champion and was an early leader in the ongoing Women's Revolution, that one of Zak's trainees, who was blind, became a wrestler, and pokes fun at The Rock's movie career and Rick selling shares in the family business. The closing credits include footage from the family's 2012 documentary and Paige's debut match.

Storyline

Former wrestler Ricky and his wife Julia make a living performing with their children Saraya and Zak. When brother and sister get the chance to audition for WWE, they learn that becoming a WWE Superstar demands more than they ever imagined possible. Siblings Saraya and Zac have been into wrestling for as long as they can remember. Born into a wrestling-mad family they now run a wrestling clinic for kids and take part in the regular wrestling shows and tournaments their parents produce. Their chance to hit the big time arrives when the WWE has auditions in the UK. Could this be their big break? — grantss The true story of a young female growing up and training to a part of the biggest wrestling organization in the world. Along the way, with the support of her family, she fights through all difficult situations that she overcame to become one of the biggest female wrestlers in the world. — RECB3