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Truth can certainly be over-rated. In regard to "The Iron Ladies", whose advance publicity proclaimed its real-life roots, the fact that the tale is true counts for very little because the director does so little with it.
A major success in Thailand, presumably because of its peculiarity rather than its quality, "The Iron Ladies" is the story of a Thai volleyball team which, composed of gays, transvestites, and transsexuals (with a straight captain), went on to win the national volleyball championships in 1996. This is the story of their joys and insecurities, their pleasure in playing and the prejudice they faced, and above all their sheer guts.
Just because this is not an American sports movie does not mean that it's any freer of clichΓ©, obviousness, and sentiment. Indeed "The Iron Ladies" - which is also too loose, baggy, and broad - moves continuously from the camping and clowning of the players to irksome, serious interludes (self-consciously scripted conversations about tolerance - 'hatred leads to suffering') to the games themselves, before the whole weary process starts again. Such predictability is helped neither by barely developed characters nor a screenplay which often resembles a series of undernourished sketches.
Alongside the sledgehammer message - that we should accept our fellow man in all his guises - is only the odd outbreak of sharp wit: "remember, girls, as soon as there's a break (in play), bring me my foundation". At least the film, mainly because of the excitability of its players, has energy, but that's about all.
In Thai with English subtitles.
"The Iron Ladies" is released at the .
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