THE FIRE INSIDE - Mark Reviews Movies

The Fire Inside, Amazon MGM Studios

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Review by Mark Dujsik | December 24, 2024

Is the story of Claressa Shields' amateur boxing career more interesting than the story of Shields' personal life, her fight to see women boxers treated as equals to the men in the sport, and her struggle to deal with another double standard when it comes to how women and men are perceived in the sporting world? Screenwriter Barry Jenkins and director Rachel Morrison seem to believe so, as The Fire Inside focuses almost exclusively on Shields' two Olympics appearances. Even when the movie is confronting those other parts of the boxer's life, they exist in service of the sports story. Can she overcome those assorted issues to get back in the ring and prove herself to the world?

It's strange that this is the way the filmmakers have decided to tell this story, if only because Jenkins' script does raise those other, non-athletic concerns repeatedly over its course. Indeed, the movie is basically split in two. The first half portrays how the teenage boxer prepares to and actually does compete in the 2012 Olympics, despite having a mostly absent and unsupportive mother, plenty of familial responsibilities to handle, and wanting to be an ordinary teen while knowing that her talents in the ring make her extraordinary.

Meanwhile, the second half, which follows Claressa (Ryan Destiny) in the aftermath of her first Olympics appearance, confronts the sad reality that people don't hold women in sports in the same esteem as men, as well as how that inherent prejudice means that an athlete as clearly skilled as Claressa has to consider pawning the physical proof of her greatest accomplishment to pay the bills. That second part is stronger in Morrison's movie, her feature debut, because it genuinely seems to care about what its protagonist can and might accomplish outside of the ring.

Even it, though, succumbs to the traditional formula of an underdog sports drama. The whole point of the transition from the first act to the second is how Olympic glory is no real substitute for the more practical side of what obvious achievement should bring: legitimate recognition and the money to back up that sentiment.

That it finally comes down to the question of whether or not Claressa will return to the Olympics and replicate or surpass her first time there seems to be missing the bigger point. It's the filmmakers who establish that bigger point, too, so the eventual return to a straightforward kind of sports story is even more confounding.

At its core, this story is a worthwhile one, at least. It helps to slightly ease the disappointment of watching Claressa's other struggles be forced to fit squarely into the broadly inspiring tale the filmmakers want to tell.

We first meet Claressa as a younger kid (played by Jazmin Headley), staying away from home after school by visiting a local gym in her hometown of Flint, Michigan. Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry), the volunteer boxing coach there and a former contender before that, wants to keep the girl as far away from the ring as possible, but after one of his young boxers insults her, Jason gives Claressa a chance to prove herself. She does, so the coach decides to train her properly.

Years pass, and Claressa improves, giving her a real shot to qualify for the upcoming Olympics. She trains and prepares for the Olympics trials, while also dealing with her mother Jackie (Olunike Adeliyi), who seems more concerned with her love life than with providing for her kids, and moving in with the coach and his wife Mickey (De'Adre Aziza). There's also the matter of Corey (Chrystian Buddington), a fellow young boxer and Claressa's sparring partner, who wants to be her boyfriend, but Claressa takes Jason's advice about not letting such things get in the way to heart.

Everything about this first half of the narrative comes down to one thing: How well will Claressa do at the Olympics? One probably doesn't need to be told how that turns out here, and for as well-staged and competently shot as the various boxing matches are, this all feels like and can't escape the usual routine.

That's why the beginning of the second half feels so refreshingly jarring. Here's Claressa with an undeniable achievement under her belt, and the best she seems to receive from others is the woman at utilities office recognizing her when she comes to pay her family's overdue water bill. Jason becomes Claressa's manager and agent, trying to navigate the world of corporate endorsements but always hitting the same obstacles: Few companies are interested in sponsoring women athletes, and none of them wants to put money behind Claressa, who's confident about her skills and doesn't hide it. When a man is like that, Claressa points out, people admire him, but being herself prevents her from getting the money and recognition she believes she has earned.

She has earned it, of course, and the fact that it doesn't mean much, if anything, to so many people gives The Fire Inside a smart and compelling bit of drama for its second half. Destiny's performance is doubly convincing, as the fighter with so much talent and the young woman with so many doubts, but ultimately, the movie repeats its initial sports story pattern instead of really delving into the multiple, far more engaging challenges outside the ring.

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