Mary Earps Deserves More Than Her Superficial Documentary Shows
Male sports stars are the subject of sanitised hagiographies all the time – so it is probably unfair to expect more of Mary Earps: Queen of Stops, a slick, shallow profile of England’s Euro 2022-winning goalkeeper. She certainly deserves the praise. Earps is widely regarded as one of the world’s greatest shot-stoppers, playing a crucial role in England’s Euro 2022 win – that once-in-a-lifetime occasion where the England football team lived up to the “It’s Coming Home” hype/nonsense. As her Paris Saint-Germain coach, Mickael Grondin, says: “Very few goal keepers – and I’m talking about men – have that intuition. That’s what makes Mary one of the world’s best goal keepers”. But while there is no doubt about either her talent or her determination, the film nonetheless has the fluffy aura of a puff piece. There is nothing about her abrupt retirement this May from international football, just 36 days before the start of the 2025 European Championship (which began on Wednesd...