Review of King Richard (2021) by Adamendetail — 30 Nov 2021

King Richard, the movie, is too cute and too nice. While that is certainly not a bad thing, it does make one feel as if it's only one side of the story. It seems to deliberately avoid the difficulties that surrounded the Williams household and particularly the man himself, only alluding to those challenges sparingly.

Mr. Williams is at the least a colorful character and he's definitely something. I am unsure what exactly but he sure is something and sadly, there's a lot of him that's not in the movie. However, Will Smith's delicate portrayal of the man smoothens his rough edges and portrays his driven & emotional side in a way that many people can relate to.

But, if all of Richard Williams is not in the movie, then it is lost what exactly is the focus. Is it just tennis? The Williams household? Venus? Serena? Both of them? A lot of the time it seems the movie is a mixture of the aforementioned; intermittently mixing and matching, never committing to one singular perspective. And this feels like the focus of the movie is constantly shifting.

Notwithstanding, King Richard does offer up some deeply emotional and moving scenes that really put you right there with the family. It is in these scenes the movie shines and unsurprisingly all those scenes have Will Smith in them. Unfortunately, other times are not as committed and by the end the plot does seem a little unfinished.