A biographical movie that goes through the motions but without any heart or soul. It tries to be a combination of Rocky and Cool Runnings, but lacks what made those two classics.
The story hits the major beats of Claressa's life but without any particular emotion behind it. Ryan Destiny plays her so stoically that she's completely unrelatable, like the fight she wins but is still upset for reasons never defined. It has all the overly broad cliches for an underdog and no finesse. Bad neighborhood, abusive mother, absent father, reliant siblings. But not once are these things connected to her desire to fight. The producers seem to think that the audience will root for her solely because she is poor, black, and a woman. It doesn't help that so much happens off-screen, important moments are discussed has having happened while not one fight is ever actually shown to its conclusion. It covers so much of the same ground as the first two Rocky movies but not once do we root for her the way we did for Stallone.
Most of the characters have no emotion and no personality, just overused cliches. It's really only Brian Tyree Henry as the coach that stands out. He's the one really trying, and the movie should've followed him. Henry gives one of the best performances of his career and has all the best scenes. He's clearly channeling John Candy's performance in Cool Runnings. But this movie doesn't get that the Disney movie made the bobsledders equally interesting.
The movie then includes several social issues but it seems like an afterthought. We're told how much her win means for the city of Flint, but we never see it. Certainly not like Jamaica rooting for the bobsledders or Philly for Rocky. The movie ends with her demanding equal pay for all female athletes, but she complains about it a few times before making a big deal at the end. If her fight for equal pay is the point of the movie then why not focus on it? If the point is helping the people of Flint then why never show how anything improves?
The movie can't really settle on what it wants to be or what it's trying to say. Instead, it settles for a bland textbook retelling of events that will inspire few and be mostly forgotten by the time the credits finish.
