One Night In Miami Review - 8 Ups & 0 Downs
6. Eli Goree's Muhammad Ali
Getting the part of Muhammed Ali right is surely daunting for anybody, let alone for any young actor asked to step into those mighty shoes. Fortunately, Goree swings for the fences and manages to hit just the right spot every second he spends on screen.
He brings a quiet humble nature to Ali/Clay in the moments when he is allowed to be private, and that swaggering arrogance when he is in public. Somehow, Ali is brought back to life before our eyes in this young actor who holds his own against far more experienced and older men.
There are few people who's eyes will not be drawn by both Clay's naïve nature and adrenaline-charged overt confidence, as he spends his first night as the Heavyweight Champion discussing his conversion to being a Muslim, as well as trying to understand what his win means to him personally.
Overall, the film, while fictionalised, gives some insight into the mind of a man who cannot comprehend what his achievement and his personal choices will represent to people, both at the time and in the pages of history.