The Iron Claw is a film of outstanding performances, solid direction and a story that almost falls apart. However, perhaps despite itself, it is also a resonant one about the search for truth beneath a devastating family tragedy. Specifically, it is about the legendary Von Erich wrestling family and how most of them met an end far too soon. This is all seen through the eyes of the eldest surviving brother Kevin, played by a soulful Zac Efron of High School Musical fame, as he tries to protect his siblings from a father hellbent on using them for his own ends. Fritz Von Erich, played by Mindhunters Holt McCallany in top form, is a patriarchal figure both terrifying and commonplace. A former wrestler who never made it to the big time, he's now living vicariously and financially through his sons, not caring what this does to them. While they rose to fame in the early '80s, the family's lasting legacy comes from its gutting fall.
The film is helmed by Sean Durkin, whose previous features The Nest and Martha Marcy May Marlene were similarly about painful family stories. Each are fantastic pieces of work, which his latest nearly rises to meet. It's clear why he was interested in this story as it hits on many of the same themes and ideas about how the people closest to us may be the ones who destroy us. Much like those films, there is a throughline about truth and performance. All three movies are about whether children can escape the lies created by their parents before it's too late to live a life on their own terms.
While the pro wrestling the brothers take part in may be "fake" (as Kevin discusses at one point), the grueling physical toll those in-ring bumps take on them is far from it. And yet, each of the matches is made joyous to watch, especially when we see Kevin flying through the air. All of them are incredible athletes, and it's easy to see why they became almost mythical giants in the wrestling world. It all comes crashing down when this immense pressure to perform doesn't stop once the boys step out of the ring. This will soon begin to swallow the brothers whole until there's nothing left except empty trophies and a quiet house where the laughs have long since faded from memory.
All of this is given the necessary emotion even when the story itself begins to form a great many cracks. Efron gives a career-best performance, bringing an understated care to a larger-than-life figure, but it's hard not to feel like something is missing. As it turns out, there is. A whole brother, Chris, goes erased. It casts a shadow over the entire film. Cinema can and obviously should take creative license, though that excision of an entire person feels wrong no matter how you look at it. If it was for time, there's no reason the film couldn't be longer. If it was to decrease the pain that it was already taking us through (Chris Von Erich died from a self-inflicted gunshot when he was 21), that's worse and borders on being a cop-out.
This story is a painful one and, if corners are cut, there had better be a damn good reason for doing so. In this situation, none of the possible explanations hold up to scrutiny. Considering that one of the central tragedies of the film is a father trying to crush the individuality of his sons to mold them into interchangeable wrestlers in the ring, it's hard to stomach the film essentially doing the same by collapsing the specifics of one brother into another.
This is compounded by a baffling scene toward the end surrounding a vision of the afterlife. It's so misguided that it nearly dooms the film. The fact that it doesn't is a testament to Efron and the rest of the cast. Much like the Von Erich brothers, they carry the weight of this story on their shoulders and manage to keep it steady even amid such painful missteps. The trouble is — like their real-life counterparts — they shouldn't have had to bear that load in the first place. ♦
THE IRON CLAW
