A rock-solid sports biopic, sporting terrific performances by Brian Tyree Henry and Ryan Destiny.
PLOT: The true story of Olympic boxer Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (Ryan Destiny).
REVIEW: Everyone loves a good, inspirational sports biopic, especially around the holidays. Amazon/MGM has had a lot of luck in that department, with Creed III being one of their highest-grossing movies, while last year’s The Boys in the Boat became an unlikely box-office success. They’ve got another solid one this year with The Fire Inside, which tells a story that feels tailor-made for the big screen.
Women’s boxing (along with MMA and wrestling) has become increasingly popular over the years, and Claressa Shields has quickly become a legend. The Fire Inside, which is written by Moonlight’s Barry Jenkins, and directed by famed cinematographer Rachel Morrison (Black Panther) tells her life story in an intriguing way that departs from the usual sports biopic formula.
For those who don’t know, Shields won gold medals in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, despite only being sixteen when she won her first medal. That alone would have been enough fodder for one movie, but while most films would have ended with that moment of triumph, The Fire Inside does something different. Instead, it follows Shields and her trainer, Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry), as they try to somehow secure their financial futures in the wake of the Olympics, a time when many athletes would be able to secure endorsement deals.
For Shields, who has to support her recovering alcoholic mother, ex-con father, and pregnant sister, the need to make a living is at least as depicted as perhaps the biggest hurdle of all, with her Olympic training going relatively smoothly. It raises an interesting question, as athletes who compete this way are still amateurs and thus aren’t allowed to make any money other than (sometimes) a meagre stipend. If they can’t at least support themselves, then Olympic events run the danger of one day becoming something only the privileged can participate in, robbing us of potential legends, such as Shields.
As such, The Fire Inside works as both a drama and sports movie, with Ryan Destiny a real find as Shields. With no boxing experience before the film, she looks natural in the ring, with Morrison and the trainers choreographing the bouts in a way that keeps them exciting but also doesn’t blow them up to the point that they’re larger-than-life, such as in Creed. Destiny makes you feel for Shields’s plight, even if, as a teenager, she has moments of hard-headedness the movie doesn’t shy away from.
Brian Tyree Henry, who’s quickly becoming one of the best character actors in the biz, is superb as her coach, who starts training her as a child, and has to make his own sacrifices for her dreams to pay off – with little hope of any kind of reward for himself. Again, though, there’s a version of this movie where he could have been portrayed as an almost saint-like figure. Here, they make him feel like a real person, prone to moments of anger and frustration, with Henry giving a nuanced portrayal.
While The Fire Inside is likely too low-key to ever win a massive audience, I could also see it turning into a bit of a word-of-mouth sleeper, as Shields’s story is a good one, and the performances are top-notch. This is a well-assembled flick, and I think audiences looking for something inspiring but less cookie-cutter than some other movies out there ought to give it a shot.
