King Richard (Green, 2021)
Normally when my critical opinion is an outlier, it is the case that I am defending or esteeming some more widely panned film, so I was surprised when I saw King Richard running at 96% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Of the twenty-four reviews aggregated on that site as of this writing, only one (by Walter Chaw) gives it a negative rating. What’s going on here?
On the plus side, Will Smith is a talented and likable star who invests most of the characters he portrays with empathy. The film is also a feel-good story addressed to a culture badly in need of them and desperate to believe that the barriers that Richard and his family faced are surmountable through willpower and discipline alone.
My issues with the film were twofold. First, it could not decide whether it wanted to be The Pursuit of Happyness or Captain Fantastic. The former is framed as a story of a father’s indefatigable drive to overcome mountainous obstacles to pull his family out of poverty. The latter is a story of a well-meaning and equally domineering father but which has room for some ambiguity and a willingness to question rather than only lionize. Either could work as a template for Richard Williams’s story, but the film wants to borrow only parts of the latter to convince itself that it is clear-eyed and dispassionate about Richard’s flaws as well as his indomitable will.
King Richard has scenes in which other adults (neighbors, his wife, coaches) question the efficacy and even the altruism of Richard’s stubbornness, and they raise questions and criticisms that neither the character nor the film ever really answers. They are waved away or dismissed with scenes that explain why he is so obsessively driven, not whether that is the only way (or even the best way) for him to pursue his goals for his family. The closest the film comes to a thesis claim about Richard’s methodology is that the proof is in the pudding. Is he driving his daughters too hard? Well look how indulgent his neighbor was, and her daughter ended up as a prostitute! Is he too lenient in pulling his prodigies out of practices? Well, look how quickly Jennifer Capriati burned out! In the moment, such arguments feel like vindications, and they are likely to draw cheers or at least nods. But doesn’t this ultimately nullify any aspects of Venus’s or Serena’s personality, character, or environment? Don’t they posit a cause and effect relationship that’s as simple and deterministic as the excuses for poverty and failure that Richard rejects? The film convinces that Richard has his daughters’ best interests at heart, but it fails to seriously answer whether anyone (much less Richard) is capable of completely divorcing his own drives or flaws from his more benign motives.
The other problem with such a theme is that it makes the story drag. We know what the outcome is, so there is no dramatic tension. For those watching the movie, Venus’s ascendancy is a fait accompli, so none of the risks that she or Richard takes (like turning down a three million dollar sponsorship) have any real suspense. Could any of them go wrong? No, because the results have already happened. And it is easy enough for the characters and film to claim there were never any moments of self-doubt, only the god-like power to will one’s wish into existence. By the time the film ends in the “big game” finale that marks so many sports movies (and does the film not realize that this isn’t really a sports movie so much as a movie about parenting and race?) it is past the two-hour mark, and we still get an extended tennis match where there is literally zero chance of failure. Here Venus loses a seemingly insurmountable lead (ostensibly through the dirty tricks of her opponent), and even then there is no questioning of the plan, just a speech from Richard about how proud he is of his daughter for playing with class.
It’s a heartwarming story, inspirational (possibly) for those who might feel hopeless in the face of inequalities. But it lacks nuance, context, or, dare I say it, thoughtfulness. I couldn’t help but wonder if the film was less for people who looked like Richard (or Venus) Williams that might be given some hope in their own battles to transcend difficult circumstances and more for a white audience to assuage their feelings of guilt about the formation and perpetuation of those difficult circumstances. After all, what does it really take to overcome them but a ninety-eight-page plan and an iron resolve? And what one man can do, another can do. So shouldn’t everyone living in poverty have tennis prodigy daughters? And if they don’t, whose fault is that, really?
King Richard will have an encore screening at Filmfest 919 before its theatrical rollout later this year.
