By Keith Walther | Rose Law Group Reporter
Just like a sexually charged, hormone driven teenager, this film is a horny love triangle on steroids. “Challengers” is an exploration of sexuality in the setting of the highly competitive world of tennis, unapologetically combining the two in an orgasmic frenzy. Loaded with subtlety, symbolism, and captivating performances, the story falls a bit flat when it comes to entertainment.
As a budding young tennis star in the making, Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) is a sponsor’s dream with her passionate competitive edge on the court while also representing the dream of young men. Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) and Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor) are highly talented tennis players in their own right, finding themselves both smitten with Tashi on and off the court. A steamy love triangle ensues as both men compete for her attention.
Years after a career ending knee injury, Tashi’s competitive fire is seemingly snuffed out, and she tries to reignite it through coaching her husband, Art. Art, nearing the end of his illustrious tennis career is also searching for his passion for one last run to the US Open. Looking to end a losing streak, he competes in a lesser tournament to regain his confidence. When he and Tashi come head-to-head with his former best friend Patrick, they must confront their past and present in order to find their future.
Critically acclaimed, Sicilian born director Luca Guadagnino (“Call Me by Your Name”) creates a sexually explorative film of a basic love triangle plot that is artistically carnal with competitive sport as the backdrop. He focuses on bringing sexual tension to nearly every scene, especially the tennis sequences. The on-the-court moments of sweat drenched bodies volleying back and forth in a rhythmic dance with animalistic grunting from each competitor is meant to convey the feeling of intercourse to the audience. With music supplied by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, this feeling is only intensified to accentuate the passion.
With so much focus and depth on the romantic tension and drama, there’s little room for much else, including entertainment. The pacing is slowed by heavy dialogue driven scenes that create extended lulls in the momentum of the story. “Two Girls and a Guy” and “Closer” are valid comparisons. The few scenes that actually incorporate tennis action do show artistic creativity with the cinematography, especially the first-person perspective shots from the point of view of the tennis ball. For those who don’t appreciate nudity in film, Luca includes full frontal male nudity that is truly gratuitous and unnecessary, seemingly only including it as shock value to right the wrongs of previous gratuitous nudity of females in films of the past.
While the film may get caught up in a slog of its own messaging, the acting and the chemistry between the actors make it worth watching. Zendaya leads the way with her best career performance to date. She brings fiery intensity and seduction prior to her character’s unfortunate injury, and then beautifully shows her dreams and passion being suffocated post injury. She enables the audience to feel her desperation to regain that natural high while still trying to keep her new reality together.
Her two co-stars, Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor provide equally terrific performances as her love interests. Faist (“West Side Story”) plays the more serious character, who has loads of tennis talent but with shaky confidence that carries over into his relationship with Zendaya’s character. O’Connor’s character (“The Crown”), on the other hand, takes tennis and life a lot less seriously, opting to live more in the moment rather than plan for a sustainable future. Both of these actors do a tremendous job of believably showing their different character paths based on their decisions that lead them to the same place years in the future. They give viewers a clear picture of what is truly at stake for each of them in that final match.
Do not let the high Rotten Tomatoes scores fool you, this film is not for everyone. “Challengers” has a dizzying number of flashbacks and flashforwards that are sometimes only identifiable by the length of Zendaya’s hair in the scene. This coupled with plodding pacing and an open-ended climax will leave many viewers frustrated and annoyed, especially those who prefer closure. Steamy romance, wonderful acting, and stimulating symbolism will make others love the film.
This movie earns:
