Tashi, a former tennis prodigy turned coach is married to a champion on a losing streak. Her strategy for her husband’s redemption takes a surprising turn when he must face off against his former best friend and Tashi’s former boyfriend.
As a male who grew up attending a very sports-oriented school and was raised by a family of sports fans, I attempted to find an interest in sports myself, but it’s an interest I could never find within myself to develop. As such, I can honestly say that I’ve never been the biggest fan of sports-related films. Yes, I understand that the sports in these movies usually serve as catalysts to a bigger story, but their presence is so dominant that I typically find myself bored, with an exception or two here and there. I’m also no fan of director Luca Guadagnino. That’s not to say I take issue with him as a director, but that before “Challengers,” I’d only managed to see “Suspiria,” a remarkable take on the source material that I will boldly claim outdoes the original in every way. I never caught “Call Me by Your Name,” arguably his most popular and successful film, and I also missed “Bones and All.” That said, with the strong positive feelings for Suspiria and what I’ve heard about the rest of his oeuvre, I went into “Challengers” with an open mind and, dare I say, even high expectations because there’s no way this director could be expected to deliver the average sports movie.
And I was right. What I got was arguably worse.
“Challengers,” at its core, is a love triangle revolving around three promising up-and-coming tennis athletes. There’s Tashi (Zendaya), Art (Mike Faist), and Patrick (Josh O’Connor), all of whom seem to have bright futures ahead of them within the sport. Art and Patrick are teammates who seem to dominate the competition at every turn, while Tashi, as talented as she is, dreams of a world where she’s more than just a tennis player. The earlier stages of the film showcase the strong friendship between Art and Patrick being tested as they both vie for the affection of Tashi, and, as the years progress, the relationship becomes more and more strained as a result, unraveling a web of deceit and betrayal.
The first immediate problem with “Challengers” is the disjointed timeline that it presents, beginning first with the present day, where an intense and highly anticipated tennis match begins between Art and Patrick; before we delve into their history, a nervous and timid Tashi soon revealed to be watching them from the audience. We then jump to two weeks previous to reveal a painfully awkward marriage between Tashi and Art, then to a staggering thirteen years before showing their initial meeting. This could be fine, but so little is utilized to build a world in the early stages that I was never drawn in enough to care about these relationships, how they began, or where they were going. The film spends plenty of time jumping around these timelines to the point that it reminded me of David Fincher’s “The Social Network.” Still, unlike Fincher’s masterpiece, the jumps don’t feel as precise and motivated. It also lacks the interesting character dynamics and masterful performances of that film, in addition to the near-Shakespearean writing of Aaron Sorkin.
That’s not to say that the acting is bad. The actors do what they can with what they have to work with. Zendaya does well with the scenes that occur in the earlier days but feels miscast in the present day as a mother in a loveless marriage. Our two male leads are serviceable enough throughout, but since I’m continuing to draw comparisons to a superior film, I couldn’t help wondering what this might have felt like watching Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield facing off instead. I’ve seen that version of this movie, and “Challengers” fails to live up while never being able to step outside the film’s shadow, which was clearly an inspiration. The performances are fine but never memorable.
And that’s essentially the motif of “Challengers.” While I never truly hated it, it was a movie of “This is Fine,” which is tragic when you consider that the writing is solid enough and somewhere buried within the final cut, there lies the potential for a good movie. It’s well-meaning, but it suffers from lifeless and uninspired directing, which is particularly strange when you consider the director. Most of the dramatic scenes fall flat, which becomes even more when they’re paired with yet another spectacular score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (the film’s real heroes). The final five minutes are mesmerizing, and every once in a while, some style does find its way in, but for the most part, this feels like Guadagnino killing time until the next film comes along.
Finally, the biggest complaint stems from the mis-marketing of the film, which seemed to center around the Zendaya character. I understand that she’s the film’s biggest star, and therefore, it would make sense to market around her, but the biggest shame is that she’s the most interesting character, and the film instead chooses to focus on its two male leads. With what we’re presented with, it’s unclear if Zendaya could carry this movie alone if it had decided to place her in center focus instead of making her the third will, but it would have almost certainly made it more interesting.
The crowd reactions were strong with this one, particularly in the comedic moments, which landed more than any of the dramatic bits, which was unfortunate since this film is indeed a drama. The reactions and the critiques I’ve seen so far lead me to believe I might be in the minority here, but on a personal note, it would be difficult to recommend this to anybody who isn’t a diehard fan of the sports movie genre. Even then, I doubt it will live on to be as memorable as the best of them.
In Theaters Friday, April 26th
