David Farnor | On 06, Jul 2024

Director: Luca Guadagnino
Cast: Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, Mike Faist
Certificate: 15

It’s been 20 years since Paul Bettany and Kirsten Dunst gave the world a tennis movie to swoon over in Wimbledon. Now, Luca Guadagnino has served up Challengers, a tennis movie that will have people swooning, sweating and thirsting, sometimes all at the same time.

The film follows Art (Mike Faist) and Patrick (Josh O’Connor), two friends and tennis rivals who fall for the same person, tennis prodigy Tashi (Zendaya). But while it is, in many ways, a romance and comedy, it soon becomes clear that this is hotter and heavier than your average rom-com. We begin as Art and Patrick are squaring off across the net, with Tashi watching on in the stands. Punctuating each frantic exchange of shots is a volley of flashbacks that unravel their twisting 15-year relationship – from their first meeting as besotted students to arguments, confrontations and crossed purposes as they get older.

There is some quality action on the court, with Guadagnino working with DoP Sayombhu Mukdeeprom to create a buzzying, visceral take on the sport – even turning the camera into the ball during one jaw-dropping sequence. It turns every stroke into a wonderfully charged moment, fizzing with energy. A throbbing score from Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor keeps the pulse rate high.

But that charge is powered by the superb cast, who bring a chemistry off the court as well as on. The always-brilliant Josh O’Connor plays the closest thing to a villain in his career to date, turning his earnest charisma into a rakish confidence that makes Patrick an unpredictable force and a volatile threat. He’s nonetheless deceptively vulnerable, as he tilts without blinking at Art and Tashi, simultaneously wanting to disrupt their relationship and be a part of their lives. Mike Faist is a perfect foil to O’Connor, bringing a cold ruthlessness to Art’s outwardly calm and mature professional.

Between them, Zendaya is electric as Tashi, turning what could have been a thankless object of two men’s desires into a powerful agent in a warped three-way web of backhanded affection. With her own tennis career thwarted by injury, she becomes a coach, which filters her bond with both Art and Patrick through a sporting lens – and that added layer to their interactions tips Challengers away from straightforward rom-com territory and into something spikier. It’s a breezy but messy tangle of pride, ambition, purpose and loyalty, as they each find themselves on the way up, down, out or into hotel rooms without seeing the potentially destructive impact their impulses have on each other.

The result is a smashing watch that feels like an adult cousin to 2004’s Wimbledon – a game about players that keeps playing with the audience right up to the last shot.

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