Art (Mike Faist), Tashi (Zendaya) and Patrick (Josh O’Connor) are embroiled in a love triangle in Challengers.
Photos of Metro Goldwyn Mayer
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Photos of Metro Goldwyn Mayer
Art (Mike Faist), Tashi (Zendaya) and Patrick (Josh O’Connor) are embroiled in a love triangle in Challengers.
Photos of Metro Goldwyn Mayer
As much as I loved his Suspiria remake and its cannibalistic thriller Bones and all, it’s nice to see Italian director Luca Guadagnino make a film that doesn’t end with buckets of blood. His new sports film, Challengers, instead he’s drenched in sweat, and it’s the most entertaining thing he’s done in years. It gives us a romantic triangle set in the world of tennis and stars three superb actors in roles that are as athletically demanding as they are emotionally rich.
It all begins on a tennis court in New Rochelle, a city just north of New York, site of a prestigious second-tier competition known as the Challenger tournament. On one side of the net is Art Donaldson, played by Mike Faist. Art has won three of the four Grand Slam events, but is now in bad shape. He confronts his former best friend, Patrick Zweig, played by Josh O’Connor. Patrick hasn’t had as illustrious a career as Art, but he might just be the more gifted player.
Art’s wife and coach, Tashi Duncan, played by Zendaya, watches anxiously from the stands. It’s clear that these three characters have a complicated history, which Guadagnino and screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes attempt to untangle through a dizzying series of flashbacks.
So we go back 13 years, to when Art and Patrick were friends and doubles partners. It was around this time that they met Tashi, a formidable tennis player who was about to start her freshman year at Stanford. The boys begin a friendly competition for Tashi’s affections, which the more confident Patrick wins first. But after various ups and downs, including a twist that derails Tashi’s tennis career, she ends up marrying Art and becoming his coach. Now, years later, that fateful Challenger tournament has brought the estranged Art and Patrick back together again. It is here that Patrick privately confronts Tashi and makes her a surprising proposition, asking her to be his trainer.
Even when all this switching between past and present gets a little repetitive, Challengers exudes unstoppable energy. In the tennis scenes, the camera seems to be everywhere at once, and hypnotic techno music, by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, pulses and surges beneath the action. And like that of Guadagnino Call me by your name, Challengers has a frank sensuality that reminds you how sexually timid most mainstream American films are in comparison.
There isn’t much sex in the film, but there is so much erotic tension and atmosphere that it doesn’t matter. Guadagnino is a master of teasing – just like Tashi. In a flirty early scene with the three of them, Tashi not only maintains the upper hand, but also reveals that these two guys might be more attracted to each other than they let on. However, as the years pass, their youthful desire for Tashi gives way to a deeper need.
As an Art, Faist shows as much physics under tension here as in the West Side Story remake, although his performance becomes more melancholic over time as Art faces his limitations. O’Connor, on the other hand, is all swagger as Patrick, always leading the way with his devilishly charming smile. And then there’s Zendaya, who is so brilliant in her early tennis scenes that I wish Tashi hadn’t been sidelined and forced to act as mentor and muse to two men. But like recently Dune: part twoZendaya watches over you with her blend of fierce intelligence and emotional uncertainty – about who will win the match and what it could mean for her future.
Will Tashi stick with Art, the safe and skilled player who may not have the guts to be one of the greatest of all time? Or will it fall to Patrick, the superior but more volatile talent? The film resolves this dilemma in a grand finale that is both thrilling and infuriating in the way it pushes this triangle and this tennis match to the breaking point. But until then, you can’t blame Guadagnino for loving his characters so passionately or feeling so reluctant to let them go. If it were up to him, the game would never end.
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