“Tennis is a relationship. We both understood it completely. We went somewhere beautiful together. “
Director Luca Guadagnino makes thought provoking films, most famously with the 2017 Call me by your Name. Challengers is his new film that uses professional tennis as the platform to explore the relationship dynamics between 3 ambitious players who jockey for power over each other on and off the court.
The action starts at college with Tashi, wonderfully played by Zendaya, hoping to become a professional tennis player alongside Art (Mike Faist) and Patrick (Josh O’Connor). Tashi is the most driven of the three but her promising career is dashed by an on court injury that forces her to become a coach.
Art and Patrick do make it to an elite level with very different degrees of success. The movie explores the relationship between them, with ambition, regret and sexual tension a thread that is ever present as the years go by.
The shift sands of their often messy and ambiguous lines together is effectively directed by Guadagnino and the script, that jumps between past and present is intriguing and entertaining.
The film is really a three hander and all the leads play their roles with conviction and manage to portray empathy in characters that sometime are hard to like.
The camera is still during the intimate scenes that pulls you into the emotions of the characters, and then explodes into life when the tennis action starts.
Shots from above and below the players and most impressively from the players own point of view is thrilling and very exciting.
The end purposely leaves the view hanging, which reflects the tensions, power struggles and love they have for each other. Like real life, sometimes things are left to be unresolved and in challengers it takes a tennis match to speak for Tashi, Art and Patrick.
If you want to be ‘challenged’ this is the movie for you.
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