On Screen: “Challengers”
Challengers
People magazine’s film critic Tom Gliatto just designated “Challengers” as his #1 favorite for 2024. While I wouldn’t go that far, Italian director Luca Guadagnino’s emotional entanglement saga involving three tennis players is certainly one of the most challenging in recent memory.
It begins as discontented top-ranked tennis pro Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) is nearing his 40th birthday and obviously tiring of the game, much to the distress of his ultra-competitive wife-coach Tashi Duncan (Zendaya). To restore his mojo, she urges him to enter a low-level Challenger tournament in New Rochelle, New York.
What she doesn’t realize is that Donaldson’s longtime on-court rival, Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor) is one of the participants. Down on his luck and so strapped for cash that he sleeps in his car, Zweig needs a win there in order to qualify for the U.S. Open.
The Donaldson-Zweig relationship is a complicated bromance, dating back to their years on National Juniors circuit, where they were doubles partners and inseparable buddies until they both fell in love with up-and-coming women’s star Tashi Duncan, who wields a powerhouse backhand.
While Donaldson’s so totally disciplined and dependable that he borders on bland, volatile Zweig slyly oozes a rakish energy that backfires as often as it succeeds.
As for Tashi, she flirtatiously plays precarious mind games with both her suitors that only intensify when she’s sidelined with a career-ending knee injury at Stanford.
While Zweig wins her first, she shrewdly marries Donaldson and they have a hotel-loving daughter who seems irrelevant to the plot.
What distinguishes Luca Guadagnino’s (“Call Me by Your Name”) risqué, psychologically intriguing concept, scripted by novelist-playwright Justin Kuritzkes, from other sports-themed dramas is its essential ambiguity, a closing twist leaving the audience wondering who really wins at the conclusion — and does it really matter?
The on-court conflict is deftly chronicled by cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom and there’s a terrific techno score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
For those who are curious, the cast trained with tennis pro coach-commentator Brad Gilbert and his wife Kim at a country club outside Boston. They look good but much of the visual action is computer-generated.
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Challengers” is an erotically charged, enigmatic 8, streaming on Prime Video and MGM+.
Susan Granger is a product of Hollywood. Her natural father, S. Sylvan Simon, was a director and producer at M.G.M. and Columbia Pictures. Her adoptive father, Armand Deutsch, produced movies at M.G.M.
As a child, Susan appeared in movies with Abbott & Costello, Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Margaret O’Brien, and Lassie. She attended Mills College in California, studying journalism with Pierre Salinger, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism.
During her adult life, Susan has been on radio and television as an anchorwoman and movie and drama critic, syndicating her reviews and articles around the world, including Video Librarian. She has appeared on American Movie Classics and Turner Classic Movies. In 2017, her book 150 Timeless Movies was published by Hannacroix Creek Books. Her website is www.susangranger.com.