Director: Luca Guadagnino
Starring: Zendaya, Josh O'Connor, Mike Faist
Running Time: 131 minutes
Synopsis: In the lead-up to the US Open, tennis tour superstar Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) meets unheralded Patrick Zweig (Josh O'Connor) in a warm-up event final. Watching them both is Art's wife and coach Tashi Duncan (Zendaya). Flashbacks reveal their backstory starting from 13 years prior, when youth players Art and Patrick were best friends and doubles partners. They both fall in love with rising women's youth player Tashi, and she starts dating the more talented Patrick. When an injury curtails her progress, Tashi turns to coaching and marries Art, whose career is taking off. Patrick's lackadaisical personality prevents him from fulfilling his potential, but he never gives up his pursuit of Tashi.
What Works Well: A love triangle within the tennis world, this is a stylish sport-as-a-metaphor-for-life drama, contrasting a winning obsession with a more relaxed attitude. Art (effort complementing talent) and Patrick (indolence eroding potential) are destined to only compete early and late in their careers, but off the court they sustain an often covert and nasty rivalry for Tashi. She is plotting her own moves with a single-minded pursuit of being on the winning side, whether playing or coaching. The three-way machinations contain enough attitudinal thorns to sustain attention.
What Does Not Work As Well: The close-up shots, scene prolongations, and dizzying time jumps are carried to excess, resulting in an unnecessarily bloated running length and jumbled storytelling. Tashi is stubbornly one-dimensional in her single-minded determination to win in-person or by proxy, and ultimately all three main characters lean into their most distasteful and selfish traits, shedding empathy like sweat on a hot match day.
Key Quote:
Tashi (to Patrick): You are the most egotistical person I have ever met in my life.
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