The Big Picture

• Wrestling is a lot of smoke and mirrors in The Iron Claw, but it doesn't mean the pain and consequences aren't real.
• The film explores how the Von Erich family's toxic dynamics and abusive parenting led to tragedy and turmoil.
• It portrays the Von Erichs as multidimensional characters, experiencing both everyday joys and incomprehensible sorrow.

Wrestling is a façade. That doesn’t mean it’s bad, innately a lesser art form, or that the participants don’t put a lot of effort into those matches. It’s just that wrestling is, like so much entertainment, a lot of smoke and mirrors. What seems spontaneous in the ring is often rehearsed heavily beforehand. Adversaries in public can be best buddies in the locker room. Given that the Von Erich family (the central subjects of the new Sean Durkin film The Iron Claw) are so entrenched in the world of wrestling, it's no wonder that their entire rapport is one big masquerade. In the ring, they were unstoppable wrestling machines. In their private lives, they were tormented by toxic family dynamics and harmful approaches to masculinity.

Wrestling may be a façade, but that doesn’t mean the punches and bruises you get in the ring don’t hurt. Similarly, all that concealing of actual feelings and desires had very real consequences on the various members of the Von Erich family, particularly the sons of this household who were all expected to be wrestling legends. Durkin’s depiction of this rocky familial dynamic benefits greatly both from his clear passion for the family and his experience handling movies like Martha Marcy May Marlene and The Nest that chronicled similar dynamics. Even if the proceedings sometimes lapse into familiar biopic movie territory, Durkin injects a sense of emotional reality into The Iron Claw that ensures it packs a wallop.

What Is 'The Iron Claw' About?

One of the biggest names in the world of wrestling was the Texas-residing Von Erich family. Led by father Fritz Von Erich (Holt McCallany) and Mother Doris Von Erich (Maura Tierney), brothers Kevin (Zac Efron), Kerry (Jeremy Allen White), and David (Harris Dickinson) helped lead the family into the history books when it came to wrestling. Younger son Mike (Stanley Simons), meanwhile, has his sights on musical ambitions beyond the ring. Though the Von Erichs were household names, they also lived with the idea of some sort of fabled "curse" lingering over them. Preordained supernatural forces are less to blame for the family’s woes, though, than the abusive parenting style of Fritz, who treats his sons like objects meant to secure the family's glory rather than actual human beings. Being wrapped up in that dynamic and so much toxic masculinity cannot just result in good times eternal. Soon, the Von Erichs find themselves plagued by endless turmoil more devastating than any blow in the ring.

Durkin's screenplay is trying to cover a lot of ground in The Iron Claw, not just in terms of years but also the number of characters. Inevitably, it succumbs to the classic biopic flaw of sometimes feeling like all narrative and visual impulses are being bent to the will of historical comprehensiveness. Some key events that should be seismic breeze right by thanks to how much material this script must cram in. Most disappointingly, Lily James as Pam Adkisson (the eventual wife of Kevin Von Erich) is around to play the standard "biopic wife" archetype despite this performer bringing lots of charisma to the role. Wrestling is often so entertaining because of its unexpected twists on expectations. The weakest element of The Iron Claw, by contrast, is how much it fits the mold of a standard biopic movie.

'The Iron Claw' Juggles Everyday Joys With Trauma

While Durkin’s screenplay wobbles with realizing its most expansive ambitions, it does prove quite compelling in its structure. Specifically, The Iron Claw is a movie that divides itself into two halves. In the first half, the camera lingers on the Von Erich boys just being humans. They drink beer on rafts on a nearby river, cheer on Mike at his band practice, and stumble their way through reciting lines in promotional ads. There’s a sense of naturalism rather than hagiography in the way they’re framed in these early stretches. They’re allowed to exist as fully dimensional human beings with flaws, joy, and everything in between beyond the tragedies that will come to define their legacy in the real world. There’s also an incredibly believable and oddly sweet rapport actors Dickson, Efron, and Simons have in those nonchalant sequences. That kind of dynamic helps sell the idea that these guys are brothers who’ve known each other for decades. However, Durkin also injects a quietly bittersweet quality into even the most triumphant experiences thanks to the looming presence of Fritz Von Erich. His attitude and constant influence over the behavior of these wrestlers make it clear this tranquility can’t last. Viewers are conscious that the joys we’re witnessing are temporary rather than permanent.

This narrative route ensures the second half, which focuses on the spiraling series of tragedies that plagued the Von Erich family, hits like a ton of bricks. Fritz’s parenting tactics make the idea of horrors befalling these people far from a shock. However, it’s still deeply heartbreaking to watch characters we’ve enjoyed seeing navigate the little joys of everyday existence grappling with incomprehensible sorrow. The power of that anguish is enhanced by this filmmaker’s clever use of restraint in depicting the most harrowing moments in the lives of these Von Erich sons. A fateful motorcycle accident involving Kerry, for instance, doesn’t see this wrestler collide with a car or stumble off the road. We just see him speeding down the road, trying to outrun the internal problems he doesn’t want to confront.

That subdued quality is also interestingly captured in the performers. Actors like Efron, White, and Dickinson are especially fascinating in this regard, as they must portray wrestlers with believably outsized public personas who quietly communicate bottled-up internal pain in their interactions behind closed doors. They're very much up to this daunting task, with Efron especially impressing in a role that other actors could’ve sleepwalked through. In playing Kevin, Efron must portray a husk of a man who doesn’t realize he’s a husk. Living with a father who forbids any displays of emotion or autonomy, there’s an emptiness in Kevin. He’s a vessel for his dad’s wishes, not an independent human. Efron heartbreakingly captures this quality in starkly realistic terms, like his initial quiet confusion over Adkisson hugging him for the first time in public. This comedy and musical movie veteran reminds viewers of the long-term impact of generational trauma within Kevin’s void, which registers as one of the most impressive feats within The Iron Claw.

'The Iron Claw' Is a Haunting Drama

The entire rock-solid cast (Tierney especially crushes any material she gets, including one unforgettable pre-funeral scene) is captured within a visual style often emphasizing lingering single-takes and wider shots. These choices create an often haunting quality to the images in The Iron Claw, particularly one dimly lit nighttime conversation between Kerry and Kevin after a seemingly triumphant day in the ring for the family. A big victory and a shiny belt haven’t eased their emotional woes, a quandary nicely reflected in the precise lighting and camerawork of this scene. These kinds of visually intimate sequences also make for a fitting contrast to any time the camera is filming the Von Erichs in the ring in front of a roaring crowd. There’s a frenzied energy to these sequences that makes for great opposition to the hauntingly quiet scenes of domestic struggles between these wrestlers.

The façade of the ring cannot keep the darkness within the Von Erich’s at bay for long. The Iron Claw succumbs to the powerful blows of biopic movie standards, there’s no denying it. But its most insightful qualities rooted in the dissonance between the persona of the Von Erichs and their psychological struggles ensure it scores plenty of cinematic KO’s.

The Iron Claw is now available to stream on Max in the U.S.

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