Challengers – Review

Challengers is an American sports romance drama which proved quite popular when it screened at the Sydney Red Carpet premiere.

The movie stars actress Zendaya as Tashi, a twenty-something tennis player who is initially involved in a love triangle with up-and-coming tennis players Art (Mike Faist) and Patrick (Josh O’Connor). She marries Art which permanently taints the friendship between both two men.

Many years later, down on his luck Patrick returns and asks Tashi, whose tennis career was halted after a knee injury, if she can coach him. Both men will be competing in a Challenger event (a series of international men’s professional tennis tournaments), but only one of them can win.

Does Tashi love Art for who he is or solely for the status of being married to a world champion tennis player? Will she leave him if he doesn’t win and most importantly have her feelings been aroused by Patrick’s return? Will the estrangement between both men ever be resolved?

Zendaya is an A-list Hollywood actress who has starred in three enormously popular movies, The Greatest Showman and Dune Part 1 and Part 2, and it’s highly probable that Challengers should also perform well at the box office.

These three pivotal actors work well together, and audiences should warm to their characters, quietly choosing in their own minds which of these two men Tashi should have a permanent and exclusive relationship with.

Adversely, the non-linear style of storytelling degrades the movie – the constant jumping backwards and forwards over varying time spans is frustrating and confusing – ‘are they now in the present or in the past?’ someone in the audience was heard whispering to his partner.

There are some humorously raunchy scenes in the beginning of the movie which gets the love triangle storyline off to a good start. It’s all in good taste and sets the mood for what unfolds.

The musical score complements the film, intensifying the high paced tennis action sequences on the court, especially during the finale, with cleverly directed and edited camera shots.

It must be noted that this is a sport-themed movie with many sequences filmed on the tennis court that contains tennis jargon and references. Tennis addicts should definitely adore this movie but audiences who enjoy a good romance movie and have no interest in tennis or sports in general may feel disinterested and ultimately underwhelmed.

★★★

In Cinemas April 18