Challengers

In tennis, it is often the case that the hardest part of the match is when you’re trying to close it out. Thus, it makes a certain amount of sense that this film falters towards the end. That’s disappointing, because a lot of the way through this is a good, interesting and enjoyable movie. The principal characters are likable, until they’re not. Their romantic triangle and all of its interpersonal machinations are amusing, until it’s not. The tennis action provides a hefty dose of entertainment value...again, until it doesn’t. Indeed, what pushes this movie over the edge and away from a positive review is the ultimate on-court confrontation between the two male leads; the final match scenes are so drawn out, so milked for drama, that the opposite effect is achieved—the action becomes tedious, disjointed and difficult to take seriously. (And the final rally at the net goes on for a laughably long time.) That specific failure shows up a lot in the film, as director Luca Guadagnino clearly strains to make his picture highly cinematic, so much so that he loses sight of simply making a good movie. Other problems stem from the direction, especially the overuse of flashbacks to tell the story; the back and forth through time works for a while, but eventually it becomes a slog trying to figure out where in the timeline the story is. (It helps not that the characters throughout appear youthful, with little difference in their appearances even between the earliest flashbacks and the later scenes.) Again, there is too much attempt to be artsy at the expense of clarity and entertainment. Oh, and the relentless use in the soundtrack of eurotrash techno “music” adds to the annoyance quotient. Still, the movie is not a total loss; the performances are excellent, especially Zendaya’s work as the eye of the movie’s romantic hurricane; this may be the best performance of her career so far. Overall, though, this movie must be labeled a disappointment. While they may have been striving for a championship, all they could actually achieve was a double fault, at best, if not an outright disqualification.