Italian director Luca Guadagnino follows up his excellent 2022 film ‘Bones and All’ with this love triangle / tennis drama led by Zendaya.
The American actress stars alongside Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist as Tashi, a former tennis star turned coach to her husband Art Donaldson (Faist).
Beginning with an unspecified match between Art and O’Connor’s Patrick Zwieg as Tashi watches on nervously from the sidelines, Guadagnino gradually fills in the trio’s complicated backstory via flashback.
As a framing device this works magnificently with the director slowly revealing more and more about the twisted love triangle until by the time we reach the games breathless final set, it’s abundantly clear what’s at stake.
The film is deliberately overwrought with Guadagnino overseeing quick changes in camera angles and zooming in for intense sweaty close-ups, all soundtracked by a fantastically pulsing electronic score from Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross which cuts in and out of scenes almost jarringly. Mixed together this makes the film unorthodox but exhilarating viewing.
O’Connor is excellent as gifted bad boy Zweig, a part completely at odds with his role as prince Charles in the Crown. But this is Zendaya’s film and the woman of the moment doesn’t disappoint with a stellar performance that runs the full gamut of emotions. Despite her slight demeanour, Tashi is always in complete control of her story and of the boys in her life. She deliberately teases the love triangle into existence at the beginning and then after her career ending injury, engineers’ events in a search for the primal high that tennis once gave her.
The script from Justin Kuritzkes intertwines the various timelines so well that the film is easy to follow in spite of its complicated structure, the trio’s tangled relationship swinging back and forth, much like the game they all love, and leading tantalisingly towards the ultimate grudge match.
Possibly Guadagnino’s finest film to date, Challengers is an intoxicating exploration of competitive sport, jealousy and desire.
Paul Steward
X @grittster
07/05/24