King Richard
Warner Bros. PicturesWithin the sporting world, there is the idea that fear inspires results. Audiences may have spotted that tone in The Damned United or Raging Bull, but at least there was something to coincide with its utilisation of such emotion. King Richard has used fear as its marketing tool. A valuable asset to streamline emotion into press packages and trailers. Undeterred by that, this Will Smith-led tennis drama – based on the lives of Venus, Richard, and Serena Williams – is a fascinating, well-constructed biopic. It rattles through the emotive tones showcased so proudly in its trailer and engages with Smith on a level far beyond his work before this feature. A tremendous bounce back for the Men in Black star, who has tried this sort of role before and never quite stuck to it.
His hard-hitting push through in King Richard is an inspired one. Smith provides this biopic with the same influence and intensity as the character he embodies. A plan is in place for sisters Venus and Serena, and all is fair in love and tennis. That blur between the self-efficacy of one man and the doubt presented by others is an intense line drawn by this Reinaldo Marcus Green piece. His direction is frequent on montages, and while King Richard is effective and emotionally touching, it is reliant on a stop-start story to spark those moments. At least those at the heart of this feature are up to the task. Aside from Smith’s intense and engaged performance, effective work from Aunjanue Ellis and a supporting role from Jon Bernthal mark King Richard as a piece with much to prove.
Prove it they do. For all the crumbling montage pieces that feel misplaced in a biopic focusing on passion, this Smith-led vehicle is a fantastic opportunity for these creatives. It is a film that truly gets to grips with the intensity of sportsmanship and the tough-love success that can come from it. But on the offset of that is a lack of derision. King Richard is so focused on the rise and rise of two sports personalities that it forgets to balance out the big shot success with anything considerably dire or moving. Naturally, moments of struggle and strife are thrown in, but Green never feels particularly committed to viewing them in the same light as success stories. His segregation of the highs and lows leaves King Richard a tad short-changed, especially when the two moods bounce off of one another anyway through this sharp and inviting script.
Shining brightly behind that crummy new Warner Bros. logo is a definitive biopic for a twice-in-a-generation pair of role models and the trainer who guided the Williams sisters to the height of their fame. Their skill and tact are displayed well in this accustomed and montage-driven biopic. King Richard may open simply enough, but the concepts and complexity underlining it all is effective. Underutilised at times, but a fine way to tell this story. King Richard is just that. Fine. Faults here or there, but a definite piece that’ll hit heavy and hit home. It’s no ace, but it’ll do.