The Iron Claw: Wrestling May Be 'Fake,' But This Emotionally Powerful Film Isn't

By Jim Slotek

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For a while, I had the de facto wrestling beat at a now defunct entertainment mag. And I discovered that the legally-enforced name change of the World Wrestling Federation to World Wrestling Entertainment was welcomed by almost every grappler I met.

They were showmen, and show-women, and in their own way, some of the finest actors in a hugely popular form of exaggerated drama. Yet they will probably never get proper respect for their acting chops.

The same could be said for Zac Efron, who deserves awards consideration for his performance in The Iron Claw as Kevin Von Erich, one of a seemingly cursed family of wrestling brothers, circa the ‘70s and ‘80s, who all tried to earn “the Belt,” only to have tragedy snatch it from them.

Left to right: Harris Dickinson, Zac Efron, Stanley Simons and Jeremy Allen White

This is not the kid from the High School Musical movies anymore (though it takes forever to shake a pop culture monkey like that off your back). He’s shown a flair for comedy in movies like Neighbors, with the hint that, underneath, he’s more than just a handsome bro.

But, from its opening scene, The Iron Claw - especially in its screen-filling opening close-ups - sees him body-sculpt himself into his role, Raging Bull-like. His muscles bulging with veins that all but make him look like a comic book character, he is a heartrendingly driven portrait of a guy born to please. The Von Erich brothers were raised by their Type A dad Fritz (Holt McCallany), a former wrestler who is determined that one of his sons be a World Champion (and he doesn’t particularly care which one, the implication is that the runners up will all be relegated to dad’s emotional scrap heap).

Will it be Kevin or Kerry (Jeremy Allen White) or David (Harris Dickinson)? It’s unlikely to be the less buff Mike (Stanley Simons), whose heart isn’t in wrestling, and who spends much of the movie trying to make it as a rock musician.

Writer/director Sean Durkin (Martha Marcy May Marlene) straddles the “is it fake?” issue nicely, underlining that the competition to please is marked by things like who is best at the mic, and who gives the best show. Kevin looks the part better than anybody, and has done the crunches to make it so. But he’s missing a certain “something.”

What isn’t fake is the price the athletes pay, both physically and emotionally. And, however closely it does or doesn’t hew to reality (Durkin’s script is “inspired by” the Von Erichs, rather than “based on”), The Iron Claw is an emotionally resonant movie about a profoundly dysfunctional family with an unescapable gravity-well of connectedness, one that dates to when they all grew up in a house on wheels, going from bout to bout.

What’s interesting is, considering all the casualties in wrestling over the years, there haven’t been more movies like The Iron Claw (the title refers to the family’s signature move in the ring). One such casualty, Ric “Nature Boy” Flair, is briefly and memorably portrayed at the top of his drug-fueled party-animal game in The Iron Claw by Aaron Dean Eisenberg. But beyond Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler, the genre is largely untapped.

Everyone in the movie gives fine performances, particularly the women in the family, long suffering mom Doris Von Erich (Maura Tierney), who’s learned over time how to live with profound loss, and the spirited Pam (Lily James), a non-wrestling fan who falls for the sensitive, wounded soul she sees in Kevin, to her eventual, frequent regret.

But it’s Efron who taps the deepest well. As the idealistic brother and self-appointed protector who can’t win, no matter how well he does in the ring, he’s a portrait of futile dedication.

The Iron Claw just may be the best movie to go unnoticed at awards season, at least so far (some ensemble cast mentions from critics associations notwithstanding). But who knows? Wrestling is known for last-minute turns of tide.

The Iron Claw. Written and directed by Sean Durkin. Starring Zac Efron, Lily James and Maura Tierney. Opens in theatres, Friday, December 22.