Movie Review: A transformed Zac Efron gives his all in tragic, true-life wrestling tale ‘Iron Claw'

Zac Efron turns in career-best work as Texas wrestling brother Kevin Von Erich in “The Iron Claw,” a role for which the actor transformed his body into a taut mass of muscle and sinew

It doesn’t take long to understand the level of commitment Zac Efron brings to “The Iron Claw” as Texas wrestling brother Kevin Von Erich. Just one look at the taut mass of muscle and sinew he’s become for the role will do the trick.

It's also clear from the get-go how invested writer-director Sean Durkin was in telling the true-life tale of the Von Erich family wrestling dynasty, which — shockingly, to those of us unfamiliar with the story — suffered a set of tragic losses almost too staggering to imagine. It’s hardly a spoiler alert to say that Kevin, by 35, was the only surviving brother of an original six. (He is now 66). Indeed, so devastating is the story that Durkin felt the need to excise brother Chris, one of three lost to suicide, from this retelling entirely.

Durkin has said he was a committed wrestling fan from his childhood in England, where he scoured magazines to learn more about the exploits of the Von Erichs, who made their name in the colorful, high-flying, entertainment-heavy wrestling world of the ’70s and early ’80s. And from that affection stems perhaps both the strength and weakness of “The Iron Claw.” It's a film that tells its stunning tale with heart and conviction, yet seems somehow reticent about pointing a truly critical finger at either the brutality of a sport that broke this family, or the man who seemed to give his sons no choice in the matter: family patriarch Fritz Von Erich.

It is with Fritz that we begin. In a 1950s-era prologue rendered in black-and-white, the eventual patriarch and promoter (an excellent Holt McCallany) is in the ring himself, displaying his famed “Iron Claw” maneuver: a punishing two-handed grip on a doomed opponent’s skull, crushing it like a vice.

Waiting in the parking lot is Fritz’s wife, Doris (Maura Tierney) and their young kids. Doris is shocked that Fritz has acquired a spiffy new car to attach to their trailer, something they can’t afford, but he tells her it’s all part of the persona he's building: You need to be the toughest and the strongest, and then nothing will be able to hurt you.