Messi

Álex de la Iglesia delivers an atypical sports doc celebrating the life and achievements of the world’s best footballer

Film Review by Rachel Bowles | 03 Aug 2016
Film title: Messi
Director: Álex de la Iglesia
Starring: Johan Cruyff, Kike Domínguez, Álex García, Pere Gratacós. Lionel Messi
Release date: 25 Jul
Certificate: PG

Director Álex de la Iglesia filmed his documentary on Lionel Messi’s life story and genius, from unlikely child prodigy to arguably the greatest footballer in the world, without his subject’s input or control, albeit with his blessing. Though Iglesia’s doc brings to light heart-warming anecdotes from Messi’s youth and rare footage previously unseen to anyone outside of his small hometown of Rosario, Argentina, the man himself remains largely a blank.

It’s fitting for a footballer who “isn’t worth a cent off the pitch”, as his childhood coach puts it. Messi is an enigma; all lightness, balletic wizardry and silence to contemporary Cristiano Ronaldo’s physicality and relentless egomania.

Iglesia isn’t much of a football fan, and this is Messi’s blessing and curse. It offers a fresh, outsider’s perspective, gobbling up the anecdotes and reflections of a host of key voices in Messi’s life – childhood friends, teachers, coaches, his Barcelona teammates, Spanish journalists and football greats, not least the recently-deceased Johan Cruyff – and re-enacts them without cynicism. This is most successful when capturing the joy of young Messi’s single-minded obsession with football and his devotion to his similarly obsessed grandmother.

Atypically of sport docs, Iglesia sets most of the action in a restaurant, showing that half of the joy of watching the beautiful game is to passionately debate and dissect with others over alcohol and food, lending Messi a carnivalesque, polyphonic quality so central to football.

Extras

The practical drawback to this approach is the necessity to film conversations first, making them frustratingly dated for 2016. The scenes seem to be filmed around 2012, at the height of Spain’s domination and Barca/Messi’s tiki-taka style. The DVD is a barebones release with no extras. It’s an opportunity missed; a catalogue of archival clips of Messi, especially his jaw dropping talent as a child, wouldn’t have gone amiss.


Released by Soda Pictures