California, the 90s. Richard Williams is desperately trying to make his two teenage daughters Serena and Venus Williams into professional tennis players, but nobody wants to give them a chance. He finally pushes them into the guidance of coach Paul Cohen. The Williams family moves to Florida. Richard doesn’t want them to be too stressed out and thus gets them out of junior circuit, which causes an argument with his wife Brandy. At a match against Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, Venus loses, but gains fame. Venus would later go on to win Wimbledon.
A biopic about another “rags to riches” true story, “King Richard” surprisingly doesn’t focus on two of its most obvious celebrity characters, Serena and Venus Williams, but instead on their ‘larger-than-life’ father, Richard, a really thankful role that gave actor Will Smith one of his best performances. Richard Williams truly is a fascinating, excellent character—at least presented in this movie world— since he already in advance decided that his two daughters will succeed as tennis players (“I wrote me a 78-page plan for their whole career before they were even born!”) and is ultra-ambitious, idealistic and devoted, but also very noble and kind. In one sequence, after Serena and Venus were bragging because they won an award, he plays “Cinderella” on TV for his girls, and later quizzes them as to what lessons they learned from the story, namely that they should be humble. Even after she was facing an adversary and lost a game, Richard comforts Venus and tells her how proud he is of her, nonetheless: “If you don’t have no self-respect for yourself right now, you will never have none. At all.” However, he does go overboard with excessive poetic homily and lectures towards everyone, even in undue moments (the bizarre interruption of an interview sequence), and sadly becomes a “one-man show” in which some other aspects of the film are neglected. Serena and Venus are kind of pushed in the background, whereas the tennis sequences do not have pathos, save for the finale, leaving the movie lacking in those areas, yet its honesty and emotional sincerity are hard to resist.
Grade:++
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