“Wireless” tells the story of an Olympic figure skater’s career is at stake after she’s jailed for something she didn’t do
“Wireless” is a sports-drama set in Atlanta where a recent anti-abortion bill has passed. With such strict laws in certain states about miscarriages and abortion, and Kiara being a well decorated professional figure skater with a large media following, it would make sense to set the film in a place so strict. It’s a relatively dark realistic film that doesn’t shy away from the subjects of miscarriage, abortion, family, adoption, and mental health issues.
The film has a strong sense of family, in those you choose, not the one you’re given or born into. The protagonist, Kiara, her best friend and figure skating partner, Dexter, and coach, Saoirse, support each other because they are literally the only “family” that they have left. It shows the will to continue on living despite how much everything weighs against you.
The film itself is dark and gritty, drawing the audience into a glamorous world where skaters fight tooth and nail for the one sport they’ve dedicated their life to. Not only is this something that Kiara has fought for her entire life against her strict adoptive parents, it’s the only thing that she can seemingly control. Figure skating is her entire world with no knowledge of anything else — there’s figure skating, home, and that’s it. All of this builds to a representation of the loss and lack of life in her world as she begins to question if this is something she really wants anymore.
This, especially, is all shattered to pieces when she falls pregnant with a man she considered a confidant, a man that took her signals incorrectly. Due to everything she believes in and considering the fact that Kiara is a foster child herself and looking for her biological mother throughout the film, Kiara decides to keep the child. However, her life was never something that was considered “easy”, as her pregnancy results in a miscarriage due to the active lifestyle as a figure skater — something that no one knew about until the press confront her about it.
Director’s Vision
There are many opinions surrounding motherhood and parenting with women’s healthcare and reproductive rights is something heavily debated. While many parents have the option in this modern world have the option of being working parents, the question is sill asked more often than note: when are you going to have a relationship and have a family? This is more of an issue for those who are happy in their single life, or even happy couples, that still have the question of parenthood thrust upon them. What the protagonist ultimately represents is the pressures the social normality of finding that special someone and eventually having kids. The motivation to create a story like this is to really challenge the audience in their perceptions of how we live our lives, especially in the family environment. The film itself doesn’t take any sides: it merely observes and lets the audience make their own decisions.
