Challengers

This weekend, Challengers, a tennis-centric film starring Zendaya releases in theaters. Challengers follows Tashi, a former tennis prodigy as she coaches her husband to be a champion as he faces off against his former best friend and Tashi's ex-boyfriend. This is not normally my kind of movie. But I was interested to see a different acting style from Zendaya as she is normally in lighter family-friendly things. This was also one of the movies that was delayed by the actors' strike and I was curious to see why MGM felt it needed to wait. 

I was very mixed about this film. There was quite a bit about it that was quite well done but also a lot that didn't work or wasn't my thing. One of the big standouts was the performances of the three leads. All three delivered excellent performances with lots of layers and emotion with Zendaya most likely to get the Oscar nomination. I also thought that a lot of the camera shots were very unique with several scenes treating the camera POV as if from the tennis ball going across the court. I thought that was a unique and effective way to shoot those scenes. I also thought the use of time jumping did a great job of building up the story. While the movie bounces back and forth through time more than the tennis ball went across the court, I thought that each moment in time added something to the story and helped the main conflict build and pay off in the end. The payoff at the movie's end was also very well done, with several moments calling back to things established earlier in the film. Of the story aspects of the film, the one that worked for me was the idea of Tashi's struggles with her tennis career and how being the best at what she does impacts her relationships. When the movie focused on that, I thought it was very effective and was really on board with the story. I also quite enjoyed the tennis aspect of the film with all the matches bringing in great tension and emotion. Finally, I liked how the movie didn't feel the need to add in a bunch of gratuitous sex scenes. It was advertised as being a "saucy" film but I felt that those aspects were fairly tame while still managing to convey the romantic chemistry between characters.

With all the stuff that did work with this film, there was also quite a bit that didn't work. I quite enjoyed the Tashi aspect of the story with her struggles with her career and relationships. If the movie had focused more on that, I would have enjoyed it more. The aspect of the story I didn't enjoy as much was the whole love triangle aspect and the relationship between the two guys. This was more the romance aspect of the film and it just had several moments that I could not get on board with as it is just not my thing. I felt that the trailer was a bit misleading. It marketed the movie as being a Tashi-centered movie about her career and coaching her husband with a secondary story about this whole love triangle which is what I would have preferred. Instead, the film opted to flip the priorities, with the lover triangle and the relationship between the two guy friends being the main focus and Tashi and her career as more secondary. I also had a hard time liking any of the characters. They are all pretty whiney and selfish and have few redeeming qualities. 

Overall, while I was a bit mixed on this movie, I felt the stuff it did well, it did very well. I can appreciate what it was going for but aspects of this movie were not my thing. I would have enjoyed it more if the movie had flipped its major and minor plots. 

Score: 6.5/10 Grade: B

Recommendation: If you are into love triangle dramas, you'll probably like this movie.