Challengers

Do you ever find that you look at lists of awards-nominated films and you just cannot figure out why some films are there? If so, don’t worry. So, from time to time, do seasoned critics.

To be fair, some people just don’t like sports films. I am not one of those people. In my experience, a well-made sports film will be thrilling to watch even if you’ve never cared for the sport in question, just as a good erotic romance will set your heart thumping even if you don’t feel the least desire for its stars. Challengers is neither. Director Luca Guadagnino reportedly brought in former world number four and accomplished coach Brad Gilbert as an advisor, and tennis enthusiasts assure me that it accurately recreates the experience of training and travelling around between tournaments. Accuracy is not everything, however, and it is not always enough. One might make an accurate film about the experience of painting walls and watching them dry, and, well, it would quite likely manage to be more interesting than this.

There is, perhaps, a period in the frustrated, pre-sexual lives of many teenagers when simply looking at a picture of an object of desire is enough to generate a thrill. In that event, perhaps Challengers will have some value because it stars are reportedly considered attractive. There’s Zendaya, as up-and-coming tennis star Tashi, and there’s Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist as, respective, Patrick and Art, two young players (and former boarding school room-mates) who both have crushes on her. None of them has the right physique for the sport.

We get a brief frisson of excitement in an early scene where she goes back to their room at an event to tease them, and one gets the impression that she’s more interested in persuading the two of them to get it on than in becoming intimate directly with either one, but this is as daring as the film gets. After that, he poses them a series of challenges to the effect that she’ll consider bestowing her favours on whoever wins a match, and another match, and another match – and they toddle along as if there were no other women in the world, as if they felt something which just doesn’t translate onto the screen.

There is a break with this format in the saggy middle stretches of the film, when Tashi tries out relationships with each of her suitors in turn. Neither measures up to her standards, and one wonders if she’s unaware that there are other men in the world. The schtick is that it’s all about the tennis and that what she’s passionate about is bringing out the best possible performance in her protégés, but given how utterly devoid of passion Guadagnino’s direction of the tennis scenes is, that doesn’t really come across either. One cannot help but think that there must be other ways of coaching champions. Tashi does not come across as asexual, so it’s hard to understand why she’s forgoing any joy in life for this.

Patrick has no joy in his life either. Everything for him is about the tennis, which makes him all the more boring. Art has a little bit more imagination, and gets to be the rogueish one, but not to the point where it’s actually fun. Aside from their tell-don’t-show desires and titles which they seem to care less and less about, there is absolutely nothing at stake. The whole thing is ludicrously dragged out over 13 years, and sitting through it feels like longer.

What critical praise there has been mostly centres on Zendaya’s performance. She explores some potentially interesting territory around the frustrations of having a career cut short, but this never goes very deep. The best that can be said of her is that she convincingly handles the age span in the film – much better than the others. Still, there is no real development. The only challenge here is keeping one’s eyes open.