YNOT at the Movies

Sports are never solely about the competition of physical ability, they are also about the rivalry of intelligence and psychology. The Italian director Luca Guadagnino splendidly illustrates this in his latest drama "Challengers" (USA 2024 | 131 min.). The movie unfolds a fascinating game played by three tennis players both on and off the court over a period of 13 years. It superbly reveals their mind-games which are as fierce as the physical game on the tennis court.

The film opens on a sun-soaked tennis court in 2019. A heated match takes place on the court between the big-shot Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) and washed-up Patrick Zweig (Josh O'Connor), and Art's wife and coach Tashi Donaldson (Zendaya) is nervously watching the game in the audience. The vivid close-ups convey the intensely racing minds of the trio, and their minds are somewhere more than just on the court chasing the tennis ball.

Immediately, the film flashes back to 13 years ago in 2006 when Art and Patrick were 17 years old, teamed together playing on the court as a duo. During a tournament, they meet the strikingly charismatic player Tashi and both fall for her hard. The bond between Art and Patrick since their childhood starts to crack, and Tashi's emotional control over the two boys begins.

As if shuffling a stack of memory cards, the film constantly goes back to a certain time from the present or the past. Both Art and Tashi go to Stanford and Patrick drifts away. But like a tennis match, the battle between Art and Patrick over Tashi continues to win and lose on both sides. Even though Patrick and Tashi are a couple at first, it's Art who eventually marries Tashi and they have a daughter together.

After Tashi ends her tennis career, she becomes Art's coach and helps to make Art a rising tennis star. She wants Art to fulfill the ambition in tennis that she fails to accomplish. When Art's performance deteriorates, Tashi arranges for him to go to a less competitive tournament to build some confidence. But when Patrick, who is completely broke, also shows up at the tournament, things get way more complicated than everyone has expected. So who will win?

As in his previous film "Call Me by Your Name" (2017), the director Luca Guadagnino is masterful in portraying subtle emotions when the main characters interact with each other. He shows little interest in the technicality of playing tennis, he only uses tennis as the vehicle to unveil the psychological tensions among his characters. But that doesn't mean the tennis match is not thrilling to watch. Quite the contrary, with the superb cinematography by Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, who is also the collaborator of Luca Guadagnino's previous films, the tennis matches on screen are absolutely exhilarating.

Among the trio, Tashi is clearly the top player off the court. She always has a clear strategy to advance her agenda and to manipulate the other two players. Zendaya's top-notch performance terrifically creates the mesmerizing character Tashi. Even though Mike Faist and Josh O'Connor are also excellent in the film, they definitely look unconvincing when they play their teenage-selves that are supposed to be dated more than a decade ago.

However, the film unnecessarily shuffles in time too frequently, which breaks the flow of the storytelling and sometimes even causes confusions about when and where a scene is happening. It could have been a much better film if it just progresses based on the timeline and allows the audience to absorb the dynamic relationship development among the trio.

"Challengers" opens on Friday, April 26, 2024.