Katie (2018) HDTV [ บรรยายไทย ]

My biggest concern, going into Katie, director Ross Whitaker’s highly-anticipated portrait of Ireland’s premier sports figure, the inimitable Katie Taylor, was that it might linger in places its audience isn’t welcome. In other words, it might prioritise scandal over sport, and go poking around in Katie’s personal life — because that’s none of our business.

You only need to watch one of Ireland’s greatest boxers answer questions at a press conference to know that Katie Taylor isn’t like other fighters. She’s shy and reserved. She isn’t one to boast about her abilities, or to share details of her private life. She is the complete antithesis to Conor McGregor.

It comes as a welcome relief, then, to find that Whitaker’s film isn’t interested in the headlines, but instead, goes about telling Katie’s story — from the days she posed as a boy in boxing clubs, in order to get fights, to her success in the London 2012 Olympic Games, and beyond — in a manner that is both dutiful and insightful.

Of course, Katie’s broken partnership with former trainer, her dad Pete Taylor, is in the mix, and Whitaker comes at the story respectfully, knowing full well that there is no way to go from one end of Katie’s journey (the disastrous run at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games) to the other (her current status as a professional champ) without addressing the elephant in the room.

Fortunately, Katie has invested her trust in a capable storyteller, and a masterful documentarian. Whitaker knows when to dig deep, and when to pull back. Whether he’s shooting in the gym, at home, or on the side of a road, his tight and focused film retains a glossy professionalism, the likes of which we don’t always see in projects like this.

It’s a beautiful documentary, basically, and Katie Taylor comes out of it looking very well, indeed. It’s a bit of a knockout.