Diego Maradona
Asif Kapadia's film is by no means your quintessential biopic. With the film beginning with a quick injection of pace in the use of a montage covering a staggering amount of detail in the journey of Maradona, essential information to understand such a mythical icon is brushed aside. His family life in Argentina, rise at Boca Juniors and his spiraling life in Barcelona are fleeting moments of expositional footage in the start. Such a decision to remove this extensive quantity of material may be justified if the resulting narrative of the film provides more compelling depth and the content a captivating treasure chest, but the answer is a mixed result with a substantial investment into the 'when' but a lacklustre account of ‘why'.
The film continually reinforces the idea that two human beings are being evaluated in the documentary: the private family man Diego and the vigorous, controversial Maradona. The film tries its damnedest to showcase the former, but the material isn't here for a multitude of reasons.
The most notable explanation is the fact that Kapadia himself has stated that the titular subject refused to discuss some incidents and parameters of his personal life. Moments which are the more internal and private matters the director was hoping to showcase. It is understandable why Maradona would take such a stance; his life is ultimately tarnished with problematic and illegal behaviour engulfing whatever good that has possibly come from his talent as a footballer. If Maradona intended to be silent on the matter from the beginning, it begs the question of why Kapadia would even remotely entertain the idea to begin with, especially after the controversy surrounding his last documentary on musical icon Amy Winehouse.
The film is left with highlighting Maradona, but the result before long leads to a quite a dull affair of constant controversy and poor behaviour that is showcased in a particular manner without a reason of why. The viewer is shown the when throughout, but the all-important why is often aloof. Crime, corruption, and drug abuse are three integral elements that feel astonishingly underwhelming, but they are three undeniably consistent matters engrossing the character's life.
One part an excellent examination of the abuse of power and one part a deeply underwhelming character study of the infamous footballer is the constant flux throughout the documentary. Peculiar never-before-seen sequences from home video provided by Maradona, including meeting his newborn daughter, thankfully open up the more often than not private individual, but the film would instead put a heavy emphasis on the performance of Napoli, which could quickly be condensed into a few minutes and not the gargantuan time that is a perplexing one hundred and thirty minutes. This makes the more eye-opening and hidden moments of his life feel minuscule and unimportant to the story.
Diego Maradona is released June 14, 2019.
