Übermensch Will Smith always generates so much warmth and goodwill that you tend to give his films more latitude than they might otherwise get. Indeed, he is already a leading Oscar contender for his performance in the good but not great King Richard, and it’s not even among his top 5 roles or films.
Smith plays Richard Williams, the father and first coach of Venus and Serena Williams – two of the greatest athletes of all time with many top tennis titles forever etched into the history books. The films narrative is pretty much the standard trajectory of most biopics: the family are working class but living in Compton, California, where drive-by shootings are a real thing. But thanks to the determination of the stubborn, visionary father, the girls become stars and his 78-page plan lifts them all to wealth and acclaim.
Here’s what’s good about the film:
The entire cast, especially Saniyya Sidney as Venus and Demi Singleton as Serena, give believable and engaging performances. Great supporting turns by Tony Goldwyn as the coach whose clients were Pete Sampras and John McEnroe at the time that Richard blustered his way into the coach’s orbit – and then later Jon Bernthal as coach Rick Macci, who took the girls the rest of the way to the big time.
And Aunjanue Ellis as long-suffering wife and mother Oracene Price should not go unnoticed. Hers is a poignant take on an underappreciated figure who did a lot of the work with almost none of the public reward.
Race is never far from the surface of the proceedings and I liked that the movie didn’t shy away from that element. This is the story of an African-American family who stayed together, worked together toward a common goal, and often had to battle the explicit and not so explicit racial barrier that obviously existed at different levels of the sport.
Here’s what wasn’t so great about the film:
Firstly, it’s a half hour too long. Most films are beginning to adhere to a 90 to 100 minute run time, and there’s no reason for this movie to be nearly 2 ½ hours long.
Especially because:
While most of the story follows the timeline and moves upward from points A to B to C, much of Richard’s story (and it is his story, for better or worse) becomes a circular narrative; recalcitrant and dictatorial Richard gets in the way, seemingly damaging the flow, but later is vindicated by the girls’ success – and repeat – and repeat again.
Unpopular Opinion:
I love Will Smith. I’ve had the honor of interviewing him half a dozen times, and he always made me feel like I was the most important person in his life for the brief interactions we had. But while his performance has already made him an odds-on favorite for a nomination, I never quite bought into it. His brave attempt at Richard’s Louisiana accent never felt authentic. I could never not see Will instead of Richard, unlike, say, Ali, where he completely disappeared into the character. And there are many other roles that deserve more praise than this one.
And so, we have a nice movie – a good movie with good performances that has probably been overpraised and falls short of greatness.
King Richard in theaters and on HBO Max | 3 out of 4 Stars | Reviewed by Kyle Osborne
