This Zendaya-starring, sweat-drenched tennis drama is stylish and luscious, but it didn’t quite hit the mark for me.
I haven’t seen Wimbledon or the more recent King Richard, so Challengers is the first tennis film I’ve watched. I searched my brain for a tennis metaphor to describe it; it’s not an ace, it’s not an embarrassing double fault, it’s more like a decent second serve. I’m glad I watched it, if only because Luca Guadagnino’s films have a vibrant, visceral quality I admire and are generally marvellous to look at, but for all its thumping energy the movie never really got me pumped up.
I’ll say that after Challengers I’m a lot more sold on Zendaya as the next big movie star. She is magnetic as Tashi, a former tennis prodigy whose career is cut short after a knee injury. Zendaya’s physique is not especially convincing on the court, but in the couple of matches we see Tashi play she displays the kind of focus and ruthless determination that gets you into a Wimbledon final. After the injury, Tashi pours all of her frustrated ambition into the career of her only client, her husband Art (Mike Faist), who becomes a dominant force in men’s tennis.
When the story begins, Art is no longer the player he used to be. In a hope to snap him out of an existential crisis, Tashi talks Art into entering a low-level Challenger event where he could rediscover his energy and confidence. Plot thickens when another player enters the tournament, Art’s estranged best friend Patrick (Josh O’Connor), a once-promising talent now slumming on the fringes of the tennis world. Their eventual meet in the finale provides the narrative framework for the movie, as we gradually discover what is at stake in this match.
Anyone who’s watched an intense five-setter knows how quickly the power balance during a tennis match can shift and swing, and the complicated relationship between Tashi, Art and Patrick is likewise volatile. The trio have a shared history of love, lust and enmity spanning thirteen years, explored in a time-jumping fashion that’s complex but never hard to follow. When close childhood friends Art and Patrick first meet young Tashi, both turn into lovesick puppies vying for her attention while she remains coolly dominant; they also seem to be into each other to some degree. After she dangles a prospect of a threesome before them, Tashi proclaims that she’ll give her phone number to the winner of next day’s match, sparking a rivalry that eventually destroys a friendship.
Guadagnino’s movies are known for their seductive quality, and here he’s on a mission to inject eroticism into what is rarely though of as a sexy sport. I’m well used to the slo-mo shots of the players during a tennis match, with beads of sweat flying everywhere, but it never looks quite as sensual as the cinematography in Challengers. Here, on-court rivalry and steamy off-court sexual tensions feed and bleed into each other.
One glaring problem for me was that while the film shoots its three leads as the hottest, most desirable movie stars that ever existed, I could only describe Zendaya’s co-stars as having the look and feel of average working actors, with not enough raw charisma to compensate, though Josh O’Connor comes closest. Another glaring problem is that while Zendaya does bring some legit glamour and star quality, there’s zero chemistry between her and the two men (in fact I thought that Art and Patrick shared a far more convincing sexual chemistry). Worst of all, none of the characters felt a like fully rounded individual and I never felt like I had a clear understanding of their emotional interior.
On the bright side, Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor’s excellent, pulse-pounding electronic score is a major standout. I was also impressed with the costuming and styling that made the characters’ transition from high school kids to adults in their early thirties better than in most movies. Guadagnino’s direction is fun and playful even if it does get overwrought in the final stretch; at one point the camera switches to a nausea-inducing perspective of a tennis ball and the final game point crams in more slow motion than a Zack Snyder movie. I just wish I felt more moved, stirred and invested into it all.
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