King Richard (2021)
“Venus and Serena gon’ shake up this world.” – Richard Williams.
King Richard (2021)
Directed by: Reinaldo Marcus Green
Written by: Zach Baylin
Starring: Will Smith, Aunjanue Ellis
What does it take to create a champion? And do the ends justify the means? Those are the questions at the heart of King Richard, a film that explores how Richard Williams (Smith) catapulted his two young girls Venus and Serena from anonymity to superstardom.
At first, Richard is presented as a typical overbearing sports-dad: firm, demanding and full of manipulative phrases that are disguised as ‘life-lessons’. However, it’s soon clear that there is nothing ‘typical’ about Richard. Due to the difficulty of breaking into an ‘all-white’ sport, and their lack of resources, Richard has to work ten times harder than other parents. He can’t afford a coach, so must make instructional brochures and videos about the kids and travel around the state lobbying free tutelage. He trains them everyday and then works his night shift as a security guard. Yet he’s happy to do this because of what he calls his ‘plan’ – a plan for Venus and Serena’s success that he wrote before they were born. And in turn this plan is the Williams’ ticket out of Compton and to safety and security.
Therefore the film is a powerful cultural analysis, highlighting the existence of a class divide in something as trivial as sports, and the impact representation can have on the next generation. Will Smith gives a number of stirring speeches to his daughters in the film about race, but the most important one is when he implores Venus to understand the importance of her success. While it will clearly help their family, the impact it will have on little black girls who never thought they could play professional sport is far more important.
As such, the film is very much an underdog story, with positive messages that echo an incredibly empowering true story.
However, this was also biggest problem with the film – it’s so much of a popcorn flick that it doesn’t delve into the darker side of Richard enough. His ‘plan’ dictated that he was going to raise these kids to be champions. From birth. And he did, so it now becomes a mythic legend – ‘believe in yourself and you can accomplish anything, etc etc’.
But…there were times when he treated Serena and Venus both as commodities rather than children. The film touches on this, and the moral paradox of being both a parent and a coach. How far should you push your kids? How far is too far? When do they start losing their independence and childhood? At what point do you become too controlling? To be fair, the movie does address these conflicts within Richard, but they’re fleeting scenes that are brushed aside instantly, only to be replaced by a montage of Venus smashing cross-court winners.
Finally, the Will Smith nomination...umm, this was an interesting one. I think Will Smith is one of the most likeable actors in Hollywood. He’s charismatic and funny and I’ll happily watch anything he makes. But this felt more like ‘Will Smith in 10 years’ than an earth-shattering performance. There are some fantastic monologues that were clearly laced in as Oscar-bait, but Garfield was much better.
Rating: 7.5/10