Fighting With My Family

Once you get past the body slams, jumps off the turnbuckle, and on-camera feuds, professional wrestlers are just like the rest of us — family folks with a softer side.

That’s the primary point of Fighting With My Family, a predictable but crowd-pleasing biopic chronicling the true-life underdog story of Paige, one of the most popular female champions of all time whose fan base will only increase.

It doesn’t exactly earn a championship belt, but it traces the scrappy start of Saraya (Florence Pugh), a teenage member of an eccentric, working-class family of wrestlers in Norwich, England, including her father (Nick Frost), mother (Lena Headey), and older brother (Jack Lowden).

After submitting videos of them in action, both siblings are given the chance to audition for spots in a grueling WWE development camp in Florida, but only Saraya is chosen by the hard-driving coach (Vince Vaughn), which threatens their bond.

When she arrives, Saraya is humbled by realizing her wrestling background isn’t all she needs. Beauty and trash talk are equally necessary for success. Fortunately, the dynamic screen presence of Pugh (Lady Macbeth) makes it easy to root for Saraya as she overcomes guilt and insecurities on her way to fulfilling her dreams.

The screenplay by rookie director Stephen Merchant is based on a British television documentary of the same name. It shows a genuine affection for wrestlers and their fans, both at the grassroots and the professional level, acknowledging both the athleticism and the absurdity in it.

There’s a healthy dose of self-serving WWE product placement, as you’d expect, to help grow pay-per-view audiences and boost cable-television ratings. But at least the movie gives fans what they want — especially backyard hopefuls who’ve spent years uploading clips of themselves jumping off the roof on to a hapless opponent in a makeshift ring. For them, there’s always a chance, as this oversimplified blueprint illustrates.

WWE alum Dwayne Johnson, who spearheaded the project, contributes an amusing cameo while dispensing some inspirational pearls of wisdom for young Paige: “Don’t worry about being the next me. Be the first you.”

Even if many of the true-life details are embellished, Fighting With My Family is a heartfelt rags-to-riches story with a female-empowerment angle that largely avoids clichés and has the good sense not to take itself too seriously. The grappling might be fake, but the emotions are real.

Rated PG-13, 108 minutes.