The Fire Inside is a film about the up-and-comers. Like the film’s subject Claressa Shields, Rachel Morrison shows great promise to skyrocket to the top in her directorial feature. Morrison, who is also the first woman to be nominated in the Best Cinematographer category at the Oscars, crafts a simple yet powerful story of Shields’s rise to two-time Olympic champion. The first American boxer to achieve this feat.
Penned by Barry Jenkins, the film opens with a young, shy Claressa running down an empty road in a snowy and frosty climate, in her hometown of Flint, Michigan. She heads into a boxing gym, where Jason, played by Brian Tyree Henry, tells her that he doesn’t train girls. But after a silent defiance, he allows her to have a one-round spar, where he sees the potential she has. Morrison cuts to 5 years later, at the start of 2012, where Claressa, with her coach Jason are bidding for a place in the London Olympic Games, to win gold and get her family to a financially secure position.
For the most part, The Fire Inside follows the standard beats of the sports drama/biopic. It is a fairly basic rise to boxing stardom and the Olympic medal, as Claressa punches her way through the competition. A typical rags to riches story, as the film shows her neglected home where she and her brothers don’t get fed, using the cliché line “Take all that pain and turn it into something good”, as the classic motivational line to ascend to the top.
It feels a little basic and underwhelming for someone of Barry Jenkins’s talent, it is a fairly paint-by-numbers style narrative. However, in the back end of the film, is where it really comes to life, where the film subverts expectations and questions: what happens when what you’re entitled to doesn’t come to light. Interestingly, the journey to Olympic glory is almost a red herring and Jenkins frames the later achievement of growing gender equality in sports – especially more physical ones, as Shields’s greatest achievement.
What is undeniable, however, is the sheer visual pleasure in Morrison’s debut. One of the most effortlessly stunning films I’ve seen in a while. From the use of shallow focus to an array of beautifully lit scenes, it is a great-looking film without being too flashy in style. The other highlight of the film is between Brian Tyree Henry and Ryan Destiny, with Henry’s Jason playing the role of a father figure with great success.
Whilst The Fire Inside is a simple story. It is one with brilliant execution. Stunning to look at, with great performances, it is a good, if a little basic and predictable watch. Only towards the back end does the film get into the meat of the material, however, and it struggles to satisfyingly bring everything together.
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