This review contains spoilers for Challengers.
I saw Challengers a few weeks ago now, before a Zoom call with Zendaya for her May cover story, and a few things about it have stayed with me.
One is just the talent of the actors—wow. If they had started playing tennis sooner, they could have gone on tour. I would’ve been in trouble. Tennis movies are incredibly difficult to make, but Zendaya was good, and so were Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist. Yes, I could tell when the ball was added in post, but it was still impressive. That’s really a testament to how seriously they all took their training, and how careful they were to portray the world of tennis in the right way.
I’ll admit that I found Zendaya’s character, Tashi—who plays in the juniors before going to Stanford, getting injured, and finally coaching Art (Faist), her husband—pretty tough to take. Tashi was just mean, for lack of a better word. But it’s true that when you’re really competitive, you have to make tough decisions, including in your dating life. You have to find someone who really understands your mind. At first that was Patrick (O’Connor), Art’s best friend, but Pat didn’t take tennis seriously enough. (I wasn’t like Tashi, but I was definitely tough at that stage in my life.) Her love triangle with them was messy, but that was in service to the story, and I think Zendaya captured her character’s tensions really well. I also think it’s kind of a great sign when a performance gets under your skin like that.
Pat definitely felt real to me; I’ve seen guys like that before. The tour is difficult in general, but let me tell you, the men’s Challengers Tour—which Art and Patrick are playing before hopefully advancing to the US Open—is crazy. You end up in some random countries in the middle of nowhere, having to stay in a hostel. And, like Pat, there are players who really struggle, and sometimes end up living in their car.
I recognized Art, too. A lot of male tennis players really rely on their wives and girlfriends. Just look at someone like Roger Federer: he used to actually hit with his wife, Mirka, and they were like glue. You see that so much in men’s tennis, especially with the players that are doing really well, but I was like that, too. If you’re on the top, no one speaks to you. You’re alone so much that you end up being really dependent on your team and their opinions. And, I mean, I was codependent with Venus at the beginning—worse than Art with Tashi. She was my support system. So it’s interesting that the movie was able to capture some of that experience.
I had problems with the ending. I told Zendaya that I hated it, but the truth is that Challengers has one of those endings that you just keep thinking about. It could be taken in so many different directions, like: Do Tashi and Pat have a relationship again? If so, how does that play out? Are they all friends now? It’s such a cliffhanger, I would have liked another half-hour. But, hey—you know you have something special when a movie leaves you wanting even more.
Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers is in theaters from April 26.