During the most powerful scene in the film King richard (King Richard. Beyond the game), Oracene, the mother of Venus and Serena Williams, tells her four truths to their father Richard. She then points out to him that behind her total commitment to their young tennis prodigies, there is a big part of ego: “It’s all about you: it’s your show. She is not wrong. In another strong scene, she accuses him of losing sight of their family being a team. Strange that the film makes the same mistake as its protagonist.
It must be said that Richard Williams is a man whose vision and determination have something to inspire. The film presents him as a courageous father ready for all sacrifices (including being beaten up by a gang who ogles one of his five daughters). It is not until the third act that the hagiography is colored with nuances, but hardly.
Will Smith, also a producer, blends into the character and leaves the locker room his aura of star : the beard and graying hair, the hunched posture of a man who has toiled hard all his life, yellow teeth (not necessary: the Oscar winners would surely have noted his performance without it)…
If the old saying is to be believed, there is a great woman behind every great man. King richard shows that a great man can hide behind two great women. Paradoxical observation: the film also suggests, but almost in spite of itself because refusing to go into this aspect further, that a great (and infinitely patient) woman is hiding behind the aforesaid great man hidden behind the two great women.
See them and hear them
There are maybe only four or five significant scenes with Oracene, most of them shared with Richard, including the two already mentioned. Aunjanue Ellis makes these passages electrifying and makes you regret that we were not more interested in Oracene (his contribution as a coach is barely mentioned during a quick edit, for example).
The same goes for the treatment of the two gifted sisters: we touch the dismay of Serena (Demi Singleton, underutilized) when her eldest goes to train without her, we hover over the anguish of the performance of Venus (Saniyya Sidney , excellent), but only through Richard’s narrative. However, and at the risk of insisting, it is again through the mother that the most significant words are formulated. Reminding them that they are “two beautiful young black girls”, Oracene insists to Venus and Serena that they have “the right to be seen, and the right to be heard”.
We would have wanted to see them and hear them more.
Richard is practically on every scene. This is, yes, his show. Obviously, he’s the protagonist as the title clearly states, and it’s the film’s prerogative to stick to his perspective. Nevertheless, an impression of incompleteness emanates from the film. This family, this team, to use Oracene’s expression, was exceptional. Hence the frustration felt in front of this resolutely partial biography.
Well executed
Technically, the film is well executed. The realization of Reinaldo Marcus Green, to whom we owe the recent Joe bell, reflects an obvious visual sensitivity. We favor long shots where the whole family appears, reinforcing the idea of unity. So that, when we film Richard sitting alone in the garden in another wide shot, the character’s isolation is exacerbated.
The director chooses his close-ups and spares his effects, whether to capture the weary love on Oracene’s face comforting Richard, or to showcase the resolute gaze of Venus preparing to serve after a difficult round. .
Pamela Martin’s editing is very fluid in this regard, both in the moments of blissful calm and in the field sequences. Moreover, these generate an incredible tension, that one likes tennis or not.