For a start, the screening is full of people. This means talking, chatting, shuffling, eating, coughing, breathing, sneezing and just a lot of generally existing going on.
Secondly, it's a Saturday night. In our world, assuming we're actually in on a Saturday and not working elsewhere, that's time for sofa and a movie at home.
However.
Herself is a MASSIVE wrestling fan. Has been for years. In her words, wanting to go see Fighting With My Family was up there with our excitement over Captain Marvel.
And, bless her, Herself offered to go and see it on her own and I could pick her up later — and, yes, the anxiety levels were gently rising at the thought of sitting in a people-filled room — but how could we let that happen?
Especially as the trailer had us laughing our socks off.
Plus it's set in Norwich.
And it is a weird fact of life that you don't have to live in this city long for it to really start to matter to you.
So. Funny, Norwich, an evening with Herself. Deep breaths...
And to be fair, the human element was absolutely fine. Sure, there was muttering and the smell of nachos, but from about 10 seconds in nothing mattered but the story in front of our eyes.
For those of you who have missed the news, Fighting With My Family is ostensibly the story of Paige — a two-time Divas champion who started wrestling at the age of 13.
Paige and her family are from Norwich, Norfolk, here in the good ol' U S of England, and her dad still runs wrestling classes in the city we're told. (research? us? behave)
The film follows Paige as she follows her dream to America to fight in the glamorous WWE (nope, no idea, but there are lots of lights and spandex).
Along the way we also follow her brother Zak, who shares her dream but is sadly left behind when America comes calling.
And this, for us, is the real heart of the movie.
Behind all the glamour, glitz and success, Paige had a lot of pain and emotional trauma to deal with — and it is this very human story that writer/director Stephen Merchant (yup, that one) has brought to the screen.
But he couldn't have done it without Florence Pugh, seen most recently in The Little Drummer Girl, who brings so much passion and emotion to the screen that you can't fail to be swept up.
And the same has to be said about Jack Lowden's portrayal of Paige's brother Zack.
Recently seen in Mary Queen Of Scots and The Long Song, here Lowden follows his character down the rabbit hole of disappointment and depression so perfectly we found ourselves wanting to yell at the screen.
Because it's impossible to watch this film and not care about the characters.
Pugh and Lowden lead the line, and behind them Nick Frost and Lena Headey play the parents with perfect comic timing and deft touches.
Like a tag team in the ring, these four play off each other perfectly.
And that's what's just so damn beautiful about this film.
Yes, there's an amazing story to tell — but it takes this team all bringing their A game to knock it out of the park.
Yeah, we know our sports metaphors. Panic not, we've got this...
There are times when the whole cinema was roaring with laughter, and there were times when you could hear everyone holding their breath (apart from that one person with their sodding nachos) — Fighting With My Family has the whole damn lot.
And then there's the small matter of Mr Merchant's directing.
Having taken care of a few TV projects and one movie (Cemetery Junction), Fighting looks like he's been directing for as long as Paige has been wrestling.
The early, home-set, scenes have the perfect feel of a British film — closely shot, slightly muted colours, you can almost feel the drizzle.
And then we hit America, and suddenly it's bright, bold, sweeping pan shots that would be right at home in Baywatch (a compliment in this case) — but done is such a way as to feel like we're still in the same film.
A deft touch and no mistake.
Did we mention the soundtrack? We probably should, because away from the killer rock tunes Graham Coxon crafts some delightfully subtle guitar work which underpins the more tender scenes perfectly.
Basically, we found precious little to complain about here.
Fans have pointed out that a lot of Paige's history has been overlooked, but when you only have two hours to play with such things are to be expected.
But for non-fans, this is a heartwarming, emotional, hilarious story about a young girl from Norwich who changed the wrestling world.
Films that have you grinning all the way back to your car are few and far between, but this is up there with the best of them.
(PS: The soundtrack has dialogue. This is exactly as it should be.)
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