Along with golf, the world of tennis has rarely made for good cinema, (1979’s Players, anyone?). With the exception of 2017’s Battle of the Sexes (which only worked due to the committed performances from Emma Stone and Steve Carell), the film world has continually failed at producing anything exciting from watching two athletes hitting a ball back and forth. With Luca Guadagnino at the helm, the hopes were high for making the new film Challengers something unique and exciting. After a strong first hour anchored by some very good performances and a sharp wit, the picture eventually gets bogged down in ridiculous drama and supremely silly metaphors. 

As the Challengers begins, Art Donaldson (Mike Faist), is in the middle of a personal and professional crisis. His marriage to Tashi (Zendaya) is seriously damaged by the fact that Art has seemingly lost the zeal for the sport, even though he is the biggest tennis star in the country. As Tashi talks him into competing in a few amateur matches in the hopes of reigniting his mojo, soap opera dramatics arrive in the form of Patrick (Josh O’Connor), Art’s former best friend who still misses the closeness they once had. Everything came to a head when (in their college days) Tashi came between them personally and professionally. Patrick is now an asshole burnout who never lost his skills and has returned to play against his old friend, his own future, and with everyone’s emotional and sexual allegiances. 

Usually announced by the swing of a racket, the picture moves back and forth from past to present and back again and then back again. In using this technique, the goal is to examine the beginnings of Art and Patrick’s friendship and get to the root of how it was dismantled. This works pretty well for a while, until the sudden shifts in time become maddeningly obtrusive to the drama at hand. By designing the story in such a manner, the film never reaches the core motivations of its characters. By the film’s second half, Tashi, Art, and Patrick become nothing more than symbols of loyalty and betrayal rather than well-drawn human beings. 

As Tasha, Zendaya does quite well. When Justin Kuritzkes’ screenplay stops short on her character’s design, the actress overcomes the potholes and gives a raw and focused portrayal that proves her ready and able for deeper adult roles. 

Faist and O’Connor are fantastic as well. O’Connor’s sweaty, disheveled, likable-but-dangerous Patrick finds the right smirking aloofness that may hide deeper motivations. Faist’s Art is the tennis star who is loyal to his family (he and Tashi have a young daughter) but who might not be strong enough to fight for his career and marriage. Both actors give committed and involving performances; selling themselves as both tennis pros and former best friends. 

Now and again, the screenplay has some power to it. There is a sharp wit to many of the early scenes and some of the dialogue can be viciously amusing. Kuritzkes has delicious fun setting up the backstory of his main characters, crafting many interesting situations that promise a dramatic battle of wills and skills both on and off the court. This is a “tennis movie”, but the picture isn’t about who wins. In Challengers, the game represents power dynamics, self-worth, and sexual politics. 

Unfortunately, the script is plagued with surface level dramatics. The dialogue is obvious and the analogies are so simplistically designed that we wait for the actors to look into the camera and wink. Guadagnino and Kuritzkes sledgehammer their metaphors against the audience’s heads instead of letting them reveal themselves organically. 

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross created a pounding and over-the-top techno score that pesters the film rather than guides it. At times, their compositions are quite overbearing and Guadagnino ruins many a good moment by inserting their work when the dialogue should be more than sufficient. 

As for the tennis sequences, the director certainly pulls out all the stops and tries his hardest to make the game cinematically exciting. These moments are a sweaty, sun-drenched ballet of well-tuned bodies in movement, coupled with the requisite shots of the spectators’ heads going back and forth with each serve. Guadagnino and cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom shoot each match like a Sergio Leone standoff by way of Martin Scorsese’s The Color of Money. By the time we experience the action from the point of view of a tennis ball, it all becomes rather ridiculous. When the picture arrives at the big match between the two old friends, with the woman who came between them positioned in the middle of the stands, the dramatic volleys are simply too much to take. 

Challengers can be an engrossing film now and again, but the plot machinations become tiresome and the endless symbolic reaches ultimately fail. After a decent first hour, it all crumbles into an unfortunately clumsy film from a fine filmmaker.

Challengers

Written by Justin Kuritzkes

Directed by Luca Guadagnino

Starring Zendaya, Mike Faist, Josh O’Connor

R, 131 Minutes, MGM, Warner Brothers, Pascal Pictures