Review: Excellent film, that even excited some one who cares as little for wrestling as I do.
Now I personally could not care less about wrestling. To be honest I am someone who has never watched a wrestling match (not even on TV). So I came into this movie not knowing who Paige was in the slightest. Despite this I found myself completely and utterly rooting for her by the end of this movie. The reason for this was simple. While I am not passionate about wrestling it is easy to tell that the filmmakers are and that passion is completely felt when watching this movie. Though this movie certainly has its clichés, it never feels like it once goes through the motions. This movie feels like a labor of love.
Again I don't know anything about the real Paige so I can't tell you how much the character Paige is like the real person. Despite this I found this character very hard to resist. She was so completely real and relatable. While our dreams may be very different from Paige's we fully understand and feel her passion and her fearing of messing things up. She has a dream in which at times if one little thing doesn't work out it could be shattered. This is something that is really scary and would cause heavy anxiety in anyone. This makes us fully on her side whenever it looks like things won't work out for her. It is hard not to care because it is so easy for us to put ourselves in her shoes and feel what she is feeling. However what we feel for her goes beyond just sympathy or empathy. We feel pride. This is something that is much harder to achieve and much more special. This is a feeling so many underdog movies wish they could make us have. All of this is enhanced by an excellent performance by Florence Pugh and a surefire script by Stephen Merchant (who also directed the film). Just as relatable as Paige is the treatment of her brother Zac (Jack Lowden). It is hard to dream of something your entire life and then be told "no" and it is even harder to see someone you love succeed at what you want to do. So many of us have gone through a situation where a family member or friend successeds in something we want to happen to us. At once we want to cheer because they succeeded. At the same time we feel like giving up on our hopes and dreams and accept that we are doomed never to succeed in life. This is a hard way to feel and a harder way to live and these scenes can be heartbreaking. It is incredible to see this powerful emotion of despair in what is mostly a feel good movie. However those scenes make the movie feel all the more real and powerful. Also adding to this movie is Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's pure likability and charisma in a brief but great role as himself. A tough love coach played by Vince Vaughn (in a great performance) is also delightfully real. I also like how the other women who want to be in the WWE are more than the bland stereotypes, they could have been but instead fully realized characters.
This is not a perfect movie at all. Sometimes the humor can fall flat, certain plot points can feel rushed and there are some clichés to the story. Still these faults are more than worth it for how excellent the rest of the film is.
-Michael J. Ruhland
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