Huh. These guys can actually play a little. I suppose that’s refreshing. I hate seeing sports films where the “champions” are no more talented than I at their given sport. But somebody clearly taught Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O’Connor how to play tennis. Now, let’s not be silly; none of these guys could pass for anything better than “club pro” IRL … O’Connor and Faist in particular are well short of the blinding speed-based reactions needed for the modern day serve-and-volley lightning ushered in by Pete Sampras and company, but … I give these strict baseliners credit for resembling guys who might last more than one round of a local tournament.
But, as Tashi (Zendaya) points out: tennis is “a relationship.” And Challengers is all about one big love triangle relationship that spans thirteen years.
The film begins present day with the championship of “Phil’s Tire Town Challenge,” a tournament equally as unimpressive as that sounds. Multiple slam winner Art Donaldson (Feist) needs to find his game again after losing it to injury; this could be the spark that propels him back to a championship run. Patrick Zweig (O’Connor) lives in his car. He’s here to get enough prize money to afford a hotel room. He uses a dating app just to get a place to sleep for the night.
It turns out these two have quite a history. 13 years ago – and props to the makeup people, CGI people, and the actors themselves at successfully conveying, “yeah, they do look 13 years younger” – these two played together as junior doubles champions. After winning their tournament, they stuck around for the women’s draw and both fell in love with Tashi. And after behaving like smitten fanboys, they managed to get her attention. Not sure how that happened exactly; maybe Zendaya likes thruples.
And thus begins a long history of how Art loves Tashi and Patrick loves Tashi and Tashi loves Art and Patrick and Art and Patrick love Tashi and Art love Patrick and Patrick loves Art but Tashi ends up choosing Art. This is what the movie is about. Points? Sets? Tiebreaks? Winners? Meh. Challengers is about Art and Patrick endearing themselves to Tashi with a touching tandem wank story.
The film’s present is this absolute nothing of a challenge championship match, but, don’t worry, you won’t be there long; Challengers has all the patience
of a schizophrenic on crack. The film constantly moves in and out of moments from juniors, from college, from pro ranks, from jealousy to romance to disgust. It’s clear that Tashi is a better student of the game than either man (which is why she is currently both Art’s wife and coach). Tashi is also a better student of life than either man. I think she truly enjoys pulling puppet strings on both of these helpless lovesick doofs.
Challengers reminded me a lot of the animated Japanese basketball film Slam Dunk, a film in which one championship game spans the entire film while every last point, shot, rebound, and foul has a backstory. I’ve just described Challengers. Art, Patrick, and Tashi have such a collective history that Patrick cannot get set to serve without the other two falling apart.
Is the film good? Well, it’s watchable. And it’s not really about tennis; it’s about love. I was a bit put off by how little the characters seemed to grow over the course of thirteen years, but such could almost be expected of kids who tied themselves to game-playing both on and off the court. Occasionally, the film likes to remind itself, “Hey, there’s a tennis match going on here!” Thus, we are treated to both the racquet cam and the ball cam. These are mildly amusing if completely superfluous innovations. Yeah, I’m not getting anything from this, but I suppose it’s cool, right? Challengers is a little on the long side, a little on the selling of tennis side, and little on the immature side for a film so steeped in relationship fodder, but it wasn’t a bad watch. Game, set, match? No. More like up a service break and at ad-in. Is that enough for you? It wasn’t my love match, but it could be yours.
There once were two rival pros
Who loved and fought, so it goes
A woman made ‘em nervous
When she landed her service
And in return, both men offered beaus
Rated R, 131 Minutes
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Writer: Justin Kuritzkes
Genre: Mixed singles
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Do you like love triangles?
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Or did you actually come to watch tennis?
