Challengers * * * *

True friendship means sharing.

Challengers is the latest film from Luca Guadagnino, the Italian director who gave us the celebrated Call Me By Your Name, Bones and All, and A Bigger Splash.  (Best not mention Suspiria.)

This time he has turned his attention to tennis and in doing so has given us three characters who are less intelligent than those in his other films, but the dynamics of their relationship makes them interesting to be with. 

Like King Richard it's also a bit of an insight into the highly competitive, obsessive world of tennis.

As a disclaimer I should confess when it comes to tennis I don't even know how the scoring works: It's  something about sets and games and points and calling love and advantage. Complicated. But it doesn't really matter, if you can't figure out who is winning you'll know who is losing because they often swear and smash up their tennis bat - sorry... racket... racquet.

There is a heck of a lot of time-shifting in this film. A slide is likely to pop up at any time moving us from today to years ago, back to today, to a few days ago, to a month ago.  

Art (Mike Faist) and Patrick (Josh O'Connor) are a couple of lads who are ageing players.  At thirty they both know they are on the last go round.  They have been best friends since they were twelve, when Patrick taught Art how to masturbate at tennis camp. 

When they were in their early twenties (Flashback) they were starting to make it as players. Then along comes Tashi (Zendaya from (Dune)).

Tashi is a lot further up the rankings than these two lads.  She has now become internationally recognised.  She's a professional and getting the kudos and the money that comes with it.  But she still mucks in at a semi professional levels. (I get the impression a lot of this goes on in the Tennis World.)

Patrick and Art meet Tashi at one such competition.
"What a hottie!", they both declare.

Later that night Tashi surprises the lads by accepting their invitation to visit them in their room. Tashi proves to be a lot more open than they'd have ever guessed as she initiates what looks like is going to become a menage-a-trois, but then she leaves them hanging. 
"I don't want to be a homewrecker" she cheekily tells them, and then inadvertently sets about destroying their bromance. Or do they do it themselves? Love is a powerful force

Over the years Tashi faces her own challenges and heartbreak.  But as her world collapses it's Art who is there for her, not the man who became her boyfriend, Patrick.   

Stoically adapting to her tragedy Tashi changes from a professional player to becoming a professional coach. She is doing okay.  Now she is married to Art. Don't worry that isn't a spoiler, you will learn that in the first five minutes. But Patrick is still there. Cheeky, audacious, unattached.

Unless I'm missing something Changeling doesn't have the rich visual symbolism of his other films. I guess the tennis world doesn't lend itself so much to using sculptures and paintings. Though the gladiatorial symbolism is clear. It doesn't dominate but its an inescapable theme (along with an ad for Aston Martin (product placement?)).

The on-court scenes can be very convincing. It's the most in-your-face I have ever seen. They hit those balls hard!  The sound is like gunfire.  At one stage we even see it from the tennis balls POV. That was pretty impressive.

Like Call Me By Your Name and A Bigger Splash what Changeling does have is hetero men flirting with gayness. Not sure where Guadagnino is going with all that, unless he's saying, "Scratch the surface...."  

And he really likes to put male nudity out there - preferably wet from the sauna, shower or sweat.  You sometimes have to wonder: Is this an essential scene or is this Guadagnino just indulging himself? (He's never made a secret about his own sexuality).

Like Call Me By Your Name and A Bigger Splash the story is relatively simple. It's the classic love triangle - a situation in which someone is always at risk of getting hurt. The acting is exemplary from the three main actors as they flesh out their characters.

But ultimately it's the engaging way Guadagnino tells the story, complete with an excellent ending that seemed to bring a pact to these confused but endearing characters  (Guadagnino does have a way of making us like them).  It's an uplifting moment for us too.