‘The Iron Claw’ is a sobering, emotional beatdown.
By Chloe Moore
Warning: Spoilers ahead
“Emotional” and “heartbreaking” probably aren’t words normally used to describe a movie about professional wrestling, but “The Iron Claw” body-slams expectations, grappling with the human stories behind the spandex.
“The Iron Claw” tells the true story of the Von Erich dynasty, one of professional wrestling’s most famous families whose lives were plagued with misfortune. Directed by Sean Durkin, the film covers over a decade of their lives, beginning in 1970s Dallas, as the sons of Fritz Von Erich (Holt McCallany) follow in his footsteps.
Fritz pushes his sons, Kevin (Zac Efron), David (Harris Dickinson), Kerry (Jeremy Allen White) and Mike (Stanley Simmons) to achieve great things in the ring, often to their detriment. His harsh and unforgiving parenting style ultimately leads to the death of three of four sons as they succumb to the pressure of their overbearing father. The movie takes viewers through the triumphs and losses in their personal lives and careers, ending when the last surviving brother, Kevin, retires from wrestling.
Efron proves he can handle a serious and emotional performance as Kevin, a sharp contrast from his former roles as a heartthrob in “High School Musical” and “Hairspray.” Efron adeptly portrays Kevin’s spiral into depression as he loses each brother, fluctuating with ease between bouts of intense anger and sadness.
The relationship between the brothers feels sincere thanks to his passion-charged performance, making the last 30 minutes of the movie all the more heartbreaking when Kevin, after witnessing Kerry commit suicide, has a vision of all his brothers reuniting in the afterlife.
Fans of the Von Erich family may be disappointed by some inaccuracies in the film, most notably, the exclusion of the youngest brother Chris. After several health issues rendered him unable to succeed in the ring, Chris committed suicide in 1991. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Durkin said that while Chris was initially part of the script, his suicide was one tragedy too many for the film, and he was written out.
Durkin also took creative license with casting. While McCallany looks the part, the rest of the actors barely resemble their real-life counterparts, with White and Efron standing at 5-foot-7 each playing characters billed as being over 6 feet tall. However, these discrepancies won’t detract much from the overall entertainment.
While the actors aren’t perfect visual matches for any of the brothers, surprisingly there are no nauseatingly bad Southern accents to be found (Looking at you, “Ginny and Georgia”). Every character feels authentically Texan, with plenty of Lone Star state references to transport viewers into the heart of Dallas.
The only truly bad performance comes from Aaron Dean Eisenberg’s as wrestling icon Ric Flair. While Eisenberg only had a few minutes of screen time, his cringe-worthy performance might still win him an award….at the Razzies.
Overall “The Iron Claw” delivers a gripping telling of the Von Erich family story, doing its best to entertain while wading through unimaginable tragedy. Longtime wrestling fans may be disappointed with the film’s inaccuracies, but moviegoers will leave the theater with their emotions pinned to the mat.
4 stars out of 5.
Where to watch: Now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
