SPOILER WARNING: I spoil the movie (no more than the trailer already does).
When I first saw the trailer for “Challengers,” my expectations were set high. I recognized right away that one of the main points that the movie used to market itself was the movie’s incredibly attractive cast. Sex sells, and the marketing of “Challengers” makes no exception to this rule. When a movie is so incredibly aware of the fact that its main cast is comprised of two Adonises and one Aphrodite, the surplus of sexuality can often be a tell-tale-sign of a deficit elsewhere in the film. I was willing to overlook this though, because Zendaya can do no wrong and I place my complete trust in her.
“Challengers” follows three athletes from adolescence to adulthood as they come of age in the competitive world of tennis. Patrick (Josh O’Connor) and Art (Mike Faist) grew up as bunkmates in a boarding school and go on to compete in tournaments together, and on occasion, against each other. Patrick, who frequently bests Art, wants to go pro as soon as possible, whereas Art plans to play tennis at Stanford and get a degree before going pro. Art wants to be better at things other than “hitting a ball with a racket.” At a tournament, Patrick and Art encounter the new upcoming tennis star Tashi (Zendaya) and find themselves competing with each other for her affections. This spirals into a messy love triangle that evolves over the course of 13 years from 2006 to 2019. It’s a lot of drama. It makes for a good story.
I do not care about tennis. The thing that got me to the theater was Mike Faist. One friend once told me that he found Mike Faist to be ugly — he clearly does not see the vision. “Challengers” director Luca Guadagnino, however, does. Guadagnino is able to achieve high levels of tension throughout the film. For the characters, stakes often extend beyond winning and losing the match (throughout the film, it is clear that Tashi enjoys basing her decisions on results of tennis matches). If I had to have one qualm with Guadagnino, it would be how wet all of the kissing in his film sounds. It was just a bit too much. Dial it back…
It would be foolish of me to not acknowledge the hype surrounding the release of this movie. The release of the trailer for “Challengers” seemed to break the internet and audiences were desperate to watch the messy love triangle unfold before them. Watching the movie, it became clear that I already knew everything that was going to happen. The trailer essentially hits all of the major plot points and leaves nothing to be discovered from the film itself. Oh wait, plot twist! The love triangle love triangles! Who could have deduced that from the entire premise of the film? Tashi’s injury plays such an important role in the plot and narrative of the film, I wish I didn’t see it coming just because it was shown to us in the trailer. I spent every time she got on a tennis court questioning whether or not this would be the game where she got the big injury.
The film manages to pack in so much drama, but the issue is, it is all drama that we knew about and expected to see in the film. Our expectations are fulfilled and met, but where do we go from that? What else? The film is extremely hindered by its marketing and would have greatly benefited if the audience wasn’t primed to every plot point the film would feature.
The performances in the film were fantastic. The actors managed to play out these wonderful scenes and moments between each other. They all possess this inherent chemistry with each other, a chemistry essential to the relationships that the film finds itself so deeply rooted in. It would be a party foul to not mention Darnell Appling’s performance as the umpire during the final match. Zendaya’s performance as Tashi is effortless and I was shocked at the degree to which Zendaya was able to make me dislike Tashi. (I never would have done that to you baefy Mike Faist.) O’Connor is undeniably a cutie-patootie, and I have a feeling that Faist will be receiving a lot more work in Hollywood in the future. The film functions as such a star vehicle since it is centered around these three distinct and compelling characters.
If you have not yet seen the trailer for “Challengers,” don’t. You will find yourself enjoying the film much more than you would have if you had already seen everything that was going to happen. I wished I enjoyed watching the movie as much as I enjoyed watching the trailer. I anticipate seeing the way that O’Connor, Zendaya, and Faist’s careers evolve and the future direction that Guadagnino’s work takes.
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