Zac Efron the Weak Link in Wrestling Drama ‘The Iron Claw’

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Rating: 2.0/5.0

CHICAGO – An epic piece of miscasting puts “The Iron Claw” in a sleeper hold it’s never quite able to escape from … the pint sized gaping empty hole at its center has a name, and it is Zac Efron. Efron mistakenly believes that his admittedly drastic physical transformation will do his acting for him. But instead of looking tough, he instead looks distractingly cartoonish, like a He-Man doll come to life. 

Portraying the 1970s/80s pro wrestling Von Erich brothers are Efron, Jeremy Allen White (of “The Bear”), Harris Dickinson, and Stanley Simons. Their father Fritz (Holt MacCallany) was a 1950s/60s pro wrestler who never got his own shot at the title, and pushes his sons to get into the squared circle and bring a title belt home. They compete against each other for their father’s attention and his approval knowing that one slip up can send them plummeting in the family pecking order.

The Iron Claw
Photo credit: A24

Zac Efron portrays oldest brother Kevin, the once promising challenger in the world of minor league regional wrestling in the early 1980’s. He’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer, and struggles with the theatrics needed to build up a macho persona. So when he gets up a little too slowly from a body slam in a supposedly title making match, his father switches his attention to the next brother in line.

This is not an uplifting sports story about a hero triumphing over impossible odds. It’s more of a tragedy involving cement heads with muscles the size of watermelons who can’t seem to get out of their own way. Their father has a massive chip on his shoulder, and is out to get his family the respect and acceptance he believes it deserves. But tragedy and trouble are never far away and always seem to find a way to thwart his attempts at greatness.

The film might have been able to soldier on if Efron were merely a wobegone supporting character like Jared Leto in “House of Gucci.” But he is ostensibly the lead, and there’s no getting around him. Jeremy Allen White has it slightly better as the brother who sets out for Olympic glory before events out of his control push him back into the family business. But he’s given little to do other than serve as a magnet for more misery.

Holt McCallany sinks his teeth into the meaty role of the family patriarch, while Maura Tierney emphasizes subtlety in her role as his long suffering wife. But this movie lives and dies in the ring. The matches are competently staged, leaning into the pre-determined outcomes and theatrics. However, Efron’s Kevin character produces unintentional laughs, particularly in one instance where the diminutive lilliputian is listed as a towering six-foot-three tall giant.

Zac Efron in ‘The Iron Claw’
Photo credit: A24

Time and again the family gets close enough to see a title belt in its grasp only to have it snatched away in a never ending saga of sorrow. As the roadblocks pile up, Kevin begins to shift his focus outside the ring in order to find a way to provide for his growing young family … Zac Efron shares zero chemistry with Lily James, who portrays his wife,

This is supposed to give Efron some emotional dramatic heft as his meat-headed mongrel struggles to please his old family, and his new one. The world of wrestling can be fertile ground for a moving personal story … “The Iron Claw” could have been the awards contender it so clearly wants to be, but instead it’s a wannabe, and just doesn’t have what it takes to come out on top.

By SPIKE WALTERS Contributor HollywoodChicago.com spike@hollywoodchicago.com