AndrewBloom
CONTAINS SPOILERS7/10 2 years ago
[7.4/10] If I authorized a film about my dad, you can bet it would be glowing. My father wasn’t a perfect man, but I love him. And so if someone wanted to present his life and his work to the public, and needed my sign-off to do it, I’d do my darndest to make sure the world saw the best of him. That is human and understandable.
So I don’t fault the Williams family, or the filmmakers who needed their permission and cooperation to make this film, for painting the generous portrait of Richard Williams in the film that bears his name and bestows a royal superlative upon it. Viewed through that lens, *King Richard* is a loving tribute to a father who, even in a hagiographic film, seems like he might have been a lot to handle growing up.
And yet, even on its own terms, it’s hard not to view this film as too charitable and sympathetic to its title character. Full disclosure,I know next to nothing about the real Richard Williams. I was vaguely aware of a reputation for pushing his daughters hard, but that’s about it. I have no idea whether the man is even more devoted, supportive, and true to his values than his fictional alternative, or whether he’s even more stubborn, myopic, and demanding than his cinematic equivalent.
What I do know is this: the movie wants to present its protagonist as someone who stuck to his guns and did what was best to ensure his girls’ success despite almost everyone else doubting him, particularly those in the establishment. He sets aside the supposed experts, supersedes their judgment with his own, and preaches humility, education, and patience to save his talented children from burning out. The ultimate conclusion of the movie is that Mr. Williams was right, if not in every choice, then in the thrust of his vaunted plan, to make his girls not only the biggest successes the sport has ever seen, but also well-adjusted, giving individuals who didn’t hit the personal and professional roadblocks of their colleagues.
Again, I have no idea if this is true in real life or not. But the problem is that, on the movie’s own terms, Richard seems like someone who constantly overestimates his own expertise and judgment, plays games with and even takes advantage of people who seem genuine in their desire to help Venus and Serena achieve their goals, and may even be a self-promoting huckster riding his daughters’ coattails as much as he is guiding them to glory.
In short, the film wants to present the story of someone who paved the way for his daughters’ success by sticking tight to his principles and his plan, even when the rest of the world was howling at him to stop. But it can also be read as the tale of a man who made every wrong move, was a jerk to the people trying to help including his own family-members, whose hidebound recalcitrance made him more of a hindrance than a help.
Seen through that lens, the film’s protagonist is a lucky stiff whose daughters’ success came not from his shrewd vision and willingness to remain steadfast, but through their immense talent which covered for his mistakes and made him fortunate enough to be along for the ride. *King Richard* is too willing to embrace the rosy view of its subject in lieu of a more exacting examination.
I say that not just because even when the film tries to paint a favorable picture of its main character, reading between the lines tells a different story. I say that because the few scenes where other characters take Richard to task are the best in the film.
In some ways, *King Richard* has another case of Wrong Protagonist Syndrome:tm:. The girls’ mother, Oracene, has a far more interesting story of the woman who held the Williams together when Richard was single-minded in his pursuits, stuck around the train Serena without the professional help Richard and Venus enjoyed, and supported her husband due to her religious beliefs despite disagreeing with plenty of his moves and resenting how he makes them without her.
It doesn’t hurt that Aunjanue Ellis gives the best performance in the film. She is real and full of conviction in a way that directly contrasts the other major performance in the film. When her version of Oracene dresses down Richard for plowing over her will and wants, or calls him on his crap and the way he’s ignored her contributions to their family and their success, there’s a vividness and willingness to deconstruct the devoted father figure who appears in so many sports movies that’s all but absent elsewhere.
Ellis cuts the opposite figure of Will Smith who, despite a performance lauded by the awards-giving bodies, is effectively a cartoon character in the title role. Every once in a while, Smith’s long-proven talents as an actor shines through. When he speaks to his daughter about his own difficult childhood experiences, or displays the relaxed charisma that Smith can pull off like no other, hints of a real person shine through. But two often, Smith is a bundle of tics and voices and grand Oscar reel speeches that speak to the way the Academy often looks for the “most acting” rather than the best acting.
Jon Bernthal is no less cartoony as Rick Macci, Venus’ coach, but his exaggeration is more tolerable and even amusing as a tertiary character than in the omnipresent lead performance. Berenthal’s cheesy but kind Macci is the positive counterpoint to Ben Stiller in *Dodgeball*. Despite the caricature, Bernthal nails the big scene where Macci likewise calls out Richard for not just overriding his will, or his wife’s will, but his daughter’s will. The combined forces of Oracene and Macci are seemingly enough to convince Richard to get out of the way, at least a little, and is the closest thing to an arc and a chastening the “king” receives in the film.
Therein lies much of the problem here. There’s very little in the way of stakes here. I may not know the ins and outs of Venus and Serena’s rise to prominence or their upbringing, but you’d have to be living under a rock not to know the successes they’ve become. So when a purportedly naive Richard goes knocking on every door in tennis and even stepping on toes in his struggle to get someone to believe his promises that his girls will become phenoms, there’s no tension because the audience knows (1.) he’s correct and (2.) they’ll prove him right.
The same goes for the tenuous choices toward the end of the film about whether or not to take a Nike deal on the table before Venus has taken a single swing or to instead bet on herself through showing her talents on the court. Even if that particular tournament wasn’t perfect, the fact that you can’t flip channels without seeing one of the Williams sisters as Wonder Woman or somebody in *The Matrix* suggests to even the least in-the-know viewer that it all worked out, if savvy watchers didn’t already figure that out from the inexorable gravity of sports movie cliches.
Having someone start from humble beginnings and lead those he cares about to a success the audience already knows only works if there’s sharp choices and compelling hurdles along the way. *King Richard* wants to present the title character as making smart decisions, but inadvertently (or surreptitiously) makes him seem like a stubborn jerk whose success owes more to his children’s incredible abilities rather than his calls, and the biggest hurdle seems to be him.
That’s the catch to all of this. I’ve spent a lot of time griping about the things wrong with this movie despite the fact that I largely liked it! It’s well-made, can boast a handful of incredible scenes, gets the audience invested in Venus’ journey, endears you to the Williams family as a whole, has its share of laughs, exposes racial divides and the grind of the sport, and convey the magnitude and scope of the girls’ journey from the crumbling playing surfaces of Compton to the flashbulbs of the center court at a pro tourney. There’s plenty that this movie does right.
But it’s also a good film that could have been a great one, which is the source of my frustration. Somewhere within this perfectly solid, eminently watchable film, lurks a more interesting, compelling, frank look at a complicated parent’s influence in the lives of the daughters who would become stars. If it could cast off the award season and sports movie tropes, and delve more frankly into the balance of flaws and nobility in its protagonist, there could be something transcendent, rather than merely quite good here.
And yet again, if it was my dad, I can’t pretend I would veer toward a complicated view of faults and favorables alike in lieu of a lionizing depiction of someone I love dearly. From that lens, it’s remarkable that the film is as willing to explore Mr. Williams’ failings and blind spots as it is. I wish *King Richard* were different, but I can’t blame the Williams family or the filmmakers for producing the movie they made.
