‘The Iron Claw’: Review

Dir/scr: Sean Durkin. US. 2023. 132mins

Telling the true story of a decorated wrestling family dogged by relentless tragedy, The Iron Claw is a profoundly sobering tale wrapped in a mystery – are some people legitimately cursed? Writer-director Sean Durkin’s third feature shares with his first two a fascination for the darker aspects of human nature, but there is a newfound tenderness that makes this crushing drama all the more affecting.

Efron delivers the finest dramatic performance of his career

Bolstered by a series of fragile, lived-in performances, led by Zac Efron’s astonishing turn as the soulful eldest brother in this seemingly doomed clan, the picture asks troubling questions about fate, fathers and ambition, eventually arriving at some hard-earned answers. It will be released by A24 in the US just before Christmas, no doubt hoping for awards consideration for Efron. Those who adored Durkin’s previous pictures, Martha Marcy May Marlene and The Nest, will be first in line, although they may find company among wrestling fans familiar with the Von Erich family who made headlines throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, their considerable triumphs as notable as their myriad misfortunes. 

Efron plays Kevin Von Erich, one of four Texas brothers raised by former-wrestler father Fritz (Holt McCallany) and devout Christian mother Doris (Maura Tierney). Using tough love and demanding excellence from his sons, who he is training to become champion professional wrestlers, Fritz allows no room for emotion or weakness. As the oldest and most accomplished, Kevin seems poised for greatness, but charismatic David (Harris Dickinson), stormy Kerry (Jeremy Allen White) and sensitive Mike (Stanley Simons) will all be drawn into the ring as well, seeking glory and their father’s approval.

Inspired by actual events but taking creative liberties — one of the brothers, Chris, is not incorporated into the story — Durkin, a longtime wrestling aficionado, invests this sports drama with specificity and insight, tracking the von Erichs’ terrible destiny in sombre detail. It would be unfair to reveal the film’s plot twists, but let it be said that, if this was pure fiction, audiences might have difficulty buying that so many horrible things could happen to the same family. (And, indeed, Durkin does not include all of the traumas that visited the Von Erichs in real life.) 

Rather than presenting a predictable rise-then-fall narrative, The Iron Claw gets at something far more existential and puzzling, mainly the nature of luck itself. Early on, when Kevin falls for aspiring veterinarian Pam (Lily James), he explains that his family believes they are cursed due to his father changing their last name when he became a wrestler. Pam does not believe in curses, but the accidents, injuries, depression and suicide that soon follow suggest that perhaps a dark cloud does hover above the close-knit brothers, thwarting any chance they might have to be champions — or, at the very least, happy in their lives.

Durkin’s previous films examined the rot at the centre of families, and that is deftly felt in The Iron Claw as well. Fritz never physically abuses his boys, but he has metaphorically beaten into them a drive to be the best, belittling those who are not in top physical condition or mentally strong. McCallany is nightmarish in his depiction of an unyielding patriarch with a grudge against the world — he feels he has been cheated by life — who wants his sons to avenge him by capturing the title belt. It is tempting to assign blame for this seeming curse to Fritz’s pitiless behaviour, but The Iron Claw resists easy conclusions. 

The entire cast is remarkable, with Tierney especially effective as the simmering mother who has learned to hold her tongue. But as the film’s focal point, Efron delivers the finest dramatic performance of his career, playing the older brother who longs to be champion but secretly possesses the vulnerability and compassion that his father disdains. Initially, Pam wonders why the family takes professional wrestling seriously — isn’t it all fake? — but Kevin insists that there is art to the sport. Durkin treats the brutal wrestling scenes with utter sincerity, proving Kevin’s point about the amount of craft and care that go into the scripted events. 

As The Iron Claw navigates its many heartbreaks, it seizes upon a cruel irony that soon becomes apparent to Kevin: the ultra-macho posturing he and his brothers exhibit in the ring is not that different from the unreasonable standards of rigid masculinity they must perform in front of their fearsome father. It’s all an act, and it may prove to be the death of them.