I am all for movies like this, dramas with plausible characters and situations delving into the joys and travails of living modern life.  The sexier the better.  Being a tennis fan, this particular movie is even more appealing to me, and it happens to star the hottest young actress in the world right now.  So what could go wrong?  Too much style and pretense.

Luca Guadagnino’s film pits two really good friends against each other over the affections of rising collegiate tennis star Tashi Duncan (Zendaya).  The two men, blonde Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) and brunette Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor), vie for her attentions on and off the court, then spend years battling each other for supremacy.  For her part, Tashi doesn’t seem to want to choose between them.  Why she would need, or want, to settle between either of them is never examined.  Surely she could have the pick of mankind at her behest.

It’s an interesting premise and I was into it.  Then the time jumps began.  Thirteen years earlier; a week ahead; eight years later; three years before; three days later; it’s much too much.  This is no way to tell a story.  Then come the camera gimmicks: one scene is all faces; another is handheld and shaky.  During the climactic match, one segment is shot from Patrick’s perspective; another segment is that of the ball, being pounded from one side of the court to the other.  And then there’s the slow motion, which slows that climactic match down to a dead crawl, just when you want it to speed up and finish.  And, of course, there’s the end, which is no end at all.

It is undeniable that Luca Guadagnino is a supremely talented filmmaker; his past films prove that.  Challengers is a challenging film, but it is also one that handicaps itself with too much gimmickry and not enough time with these characters as they interact with one another.  There is a lot of gazing into one another’s eyes and some locking of lips but much of it feels superficial and artificial — just like the power with which Tashi strikes her shots (mostly CGI, I’m afraid, with sweetened sound effect).  This could have been a really good, powerful film if it had been told more traditionally, with greater character depth and meaning.  As it is, it’s a pretty good story about how two men sustain a friendship that is forced to survive their love for the same woman.  ☆ ☆ 1/2 stars.  7 June 2024.