The Fire Inside Review: Not Your Average Inspirational Sports Movie

The world has no lack of inspirational sports movies. It’s not difficult to see why. Sports have natural challenges and natural conflicts, so the drama is built in. Boxing is maybe the most natural challenge of all, being a literal physical battle between opponents.

At first blush, The Fire Inside would appear to be simply the latest in a long line of inspirational sports movies. In this case, the twist making this story unique compared to any Rocky movie would be that the traditional narrative of the boxer fighting to be the best is a woman instead of a man. However, what actually sets this movie apart is that the fight to be a champion is only half the story and the real inspiration comes from the fight that follows after.

The Fire Inside is based on the true life story of Claressa Shields. As a child in 2002, when the idea of women boxing seems crazy, she comes under the tutelage of Jason Crutchfield (Bryan Tyree Henry), a boxing coach in Flint, Michigan. Ten years later, Shields (Ryan Destiny) has a chance to compete in the Olympics the first year women’s boxing becomes an official sport. Shields is an underdog not simply because she’s a woman in a “man’s sport” but because she is only a teenager and comes from working-class Flint, and thus doesn’t have the advantages of many of the other competitors.

Despite some setbacks, Shields fights her way to the Olympic Games in London and ultimately wins the first gold medal in Olympic women’s middleweight boxing. Some might expect such a statement to be a major spoiler, as certainly winning the gold medal is where such a story normally ends, but actually, that’s where the real story of The Fire Inside begins.

The Fire Inside appears to be a traditional sports movie, but it’s a great deal more.

The movie pulls a remarkable swerve when one realizes that the medal is won, and yet the movie is only half over. This is really about what happens after other movies of this type have rolled the end credits.

Shields competes for the gold medal not simply for the medal itself but because of what it can bring to her life. She expects to have all of the sponsorships and endorsements that come with a gold medal. Unfortunately, when you are a black woman from a working-class town who won in a sport that isn’t seen as feminine, things aren’t so easy. Her family has pinned their future on her success, and while she achieved that success, the rest does not follow.

The script for The Fire Inside by Barry Jenkins certainly ends up uneven. The opening half flies by at an absolute breakneck pace. The story moves from each important chapter in Claressa Shields’ life to the next so fast that the audience barely has time to get their bearings. Big moments that you would expect would have a lot of emotional weight, like Shields actually winning her gold medal, are moved through with an incredible speed so there’s little catharsis for the audience. It’s all strangely unsatisfying.

The Fire Inside isn’t about boxing; it’s ultimately about a different sort of fight.

However, when you understand where the story is going, it at least makes sense why these decisions were made. The opening rise is only important because the audience must fully understand the depth of the fall. It’s after she has achieved Olympic glory that Claressa Shields’ true fight happens. She believes she’s earned something, and now she has to figure out how to get it.

It’s when she comes home from the Olympics and the happily ever after doesn’t transpire that the movie finds itself. Our hero has been through an experience that few have ever had. She’s accomplished something that even fewer have done, and yet, her life has not changed. This isn’t what the American dream has sold her.

The Fire Inside is the feature film debut of director Rachel Morrison. Her skills as a cinematographer on Ryan Coogler‘s efforts like the action-heavy Black Panther and the more dramatic Fruitvale Station are both on display. Considering the story she has crafted, and the performances she has gotten from her two lead actors, we can rest assured we have not seen the last of Morrison’s directorial efforts.

Ryan Destiny is a star in the making.

Ryan Destiny is incredible in her performance as Claressa Shields. As the young 16-year-old who is more than a little in over her head competing in the Olympics, she is completely relatable. The absolute pain that comes with realizing that her dream hasn’t really come true is as heartbreaking.

Brian Tyree Henry is equally impressive. His character’s relationship with Claressa is to some extent that of a surrogate father, but it’s also one of true and honest respect. Crutchfield isn’t simply a boxing coach trying to make a champion; he’s a father and a cable installer who only volunteers to train boxers. He’s the one who fills Claressa’s head with dreams of endorsement deals, because he believes in it all too – and he is equally distraught when he discovers that those dreams aren’t coming true for her.

There’s an entire sequel’s worth of information in the post-movie text that ends most modern biopics. The information contained there could have given the movie a potentially more satisfying ending had it been in the film. But then, the lack of satisfying closure to The Fire Inside is the point.

If there’s a somewhat fatal flaw in your average inspirational sports movie, it’s that the hero is usually clearly talented, and therefore seeing them win isn’t necessarily a surprise. Claressa Shields is a talented boxer. Her winning at the Olympics was maybe not that much of a surprise. But the fight that she had to win was outside the ring which is why watching her fight is so inspiring.