It’s rare that I see a movie that meets my expectations exactly. King Richard, Will Smith’s latest Oscar-bait vehicle, did just that. It is no better, no worse than I anticipated, it covered its’ story in just the manner I thought it would, with all the emotional beats and typical plot trajectory, character arc of the biopic formula -hitting an impressive, consistent mediocrity all throughout. It fulfills its’ purpose with remarkable efficiency, no desire to aim higher or do more, though competent enough. Likely it will yield results, Smith may just get that Oscar nomination he’s been chasing for over a decade. It doesn’t make the movie any good though.
King Richard is one of the plainest sports biopics I’ve seen -it doesn’t have much in the way of compelling storytelling or creative filmmaking. Though it may be the first one I’ve seen about a sports dad, centring on Richard Williams (played by Smith), father of future tennis superstars Venus (Saniyya Sidney) and Serena Williams (Demi Singleton). And them being superstars is very much something he’s set his hopes and dreams on. It is interesting that Richard essentially road-mapped his daughters’ whole careers, and that they ultimately more or less aligned with the plans he had concocted for them as far back as the 80s. I initially expected this to be mostly a cheap vindication device or some lazy writing, but archive footage played at the end does show the real Richard Williams indeed had all this in mind for the girls when they were just starting out.
The film makes these points often though and seems to rely on the eventual truth in Richard’s predictions as a justification for all his actions and choices, many of which are nakedly stubborn or wrong-headed. Director Reinaldo Marcus Green frames it in a way that would suggest an underdog brilliance or a headstrong set of principles, but the script does little work to support this. Instead, he comes off just seeming purposely obtuse in his interactions with managers, coaches, and sponsors, as though determined to make his daughters’ road to success as difficult as possible. And he barely gives them any power in the matter. Richard is an extremely controlling figure in his daughters’ lives and I don’t know that the movie is fully aware of that. He’s certainly much more invested in them becoming tennis stars than they are, pushing them with a very stringent training regimen, and though the girls enjoy tennis, its’ suggested this is only because Richard forced it on them from an early age –determined his girls make a statement by succeeding in a white-dominated sport.
There are healthier sides to his personality of course –through all of this he’s caring and loving towards his daughters, he’s concerned about his familys’ safety in their Compton neighbourhood, sets responsible boundaries, and he holds himself to a standard in relation to other tennis parents he sees, whose harshness and aggravation towards their children when they play poorly troubles him deeply. But those greater extreme tendencies don’t really go challenged, or rather when they are slightly, by his wife Brandy (Aunjanue Ellis), who criticizes him for not involving her or their daughters in these decisions, it’s with the caveat that what he’s doing generally is still good and righteous.
It’s why I wish the movie was more interested in Venus and Serena -they’re crucial to its’ plot (and its’ marketing) and yet often they just seem to be Richards’ pawns with no real agency or drive of their own. We don’t get to see their perspective on these things, how they feel about the way their dad is training them, the major life decisions he’s making for them. At one point, Venus is picked up by an elite coach (Tony Goldwyn) but Serena isn’t. As far as any rift this would cause goes, there’s merely a short scene of Serena feeling “left out” as her mother puts it, and then a moment just ahead of the climax where Serena is feeling a bit down and Richard reassures her about his expectations for her. Even with more spotlight, Venus is hardly better off -though she gets a couple chances to assert herself and express hurt over one of Richard’s impulsive moves. And then of course, she’s at the heart of the climax, which is her first tournament match in Spain. But still, it’s framed very much as Richard’s achievement, Venus is simply his vessel. Consequently, the stakes of this match are more for him than for her and the outcome facilitates his character growth.
What also doesn’t help are the insights into Richard’s background and motivations, though meant to illustrate his own struggle, they just further support this enterprise being vicarious wish fulfillment. It’s all about something he has to prove given his own experiences with harrowing racism as a child. Making Venus and Serena tennis stars is his way of responding to that buildup of personal injury, disguised feebly (and by the film also) as a noble endeavour for representation.
But let’s get to the real heart of this film and the reason it was made; and I must say that even as a showcase for Will Smith, it’s underwhelming. His performance is perfectly fine most of the time, occasionally he reaches for that attempt at sincerity or emotionality so common of Oscar-bait biopics (and it’s worked before, see Renee Zellweger), though I don’t think it’s particularly convincing. He plays Richard very capably, gets the accent down, but he doesn’t rise above the material the way for instance, Andra Day did in The United States vs. Billie Holiday. The thing is, Will Smith’s acting capabilities have a threshold, and that threshold is The Pursuit of Happyness, and if he didn’t win an Oscar then it just might not be in the cards for him, which is fine. Will Smith will always have Independence Day and Men in Black -he doesn’t need Oscar.
Venus and Serena are both credited executive producers on the film, so in spite of how passively they are portrayed, it can be assumed that they approved this propaganda piece about their father. Already it has been criticized though by other members of Richards’ family for sugarcoating the figure he was –however to the comment that he invested so much in those girls at the expense of his other daughters I would argue the film does show that, just without any critical evaluation. Overall though King Richard isn’t substantive enough to even inspire frustration at what it props up as its’ virtues. It would have to be trying harder for that. It’s just another bland awards-season biopic that, Oscar-nominated or not, won’t be remembered six months from now.
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