Will Smith knows best as the father of Venus and Serena in King Richard
It's more interesting than the average sports biopic, but still plays perilously close to hagiography
Richard Williams (Will Smith) is obsessed with tennis. He doesn’t really play it, mind—he has some unspecified trouble with his feet, evidenced by his quietly lopsided gait, and he didn’t grow up with the sport, as he’s told almost every great player must. But Richard dresses the part, only occasionally seen without his slightly too-short shorts and polo shirt, and makes sure his daughters live and breathe tennis, which means practicing hard, every day, even in the rain, wherever they can. It’s all part of a multi-page, multi-decade plan worth of Dignan from Bottle Rocket, only with loftier goals: Raise the best tennis players of all time. It would sound like a maniacal pipe dream, if not for the fact that Richard’s daughters are Serena and Venus Williams.
That’s how Richard refers to Venus—as “Venus Williams,” though sometimes she’s also “Junior.” In King Richard, she’s well-played by Saniyya Sidney, opposite an equally capable Demi Singleton as Serena. Regardless, this is not really their movie. The future greats, portrayed here during their tween and early teen years, have a handful of scenes to themselves—especially Venus, who rises to prominence a little ahead of her sister—while never wresting the film away from Smith’s Richard.
That’s all part of the movie’s novel design. By viewing the Williams sisters’ early years through their father, King Richard finds a different angle on the underdog sports biopic, emphasizing a real-life “character” who might be a colorful scene-stealer in a more conventionally written film. In this telling, being an exacting and stubborn stage parent is its own kind of bizarre athletic feat.
The re-centering of a story about two superstar women of color to venerate their father might justifiably raise some eyebrows, though it’s worth noting that Venus and Serena seem to approve; they’re credited as two of many executive producers here. (Maybe zeroing in on Richard offers a welcome change for the sisters, after years in the direct spotlight.) That said, the family’s approval may have inhibited a truly complicated portrait. Within the bounds of inspirational drama, King Richard boasts some appropriately rousing climactic matches—and not all with the expected outcomes. But the fresher aspect of the movie looks at Richard’s parenting style, combining elements of coach-ready pep talks, old-school-dad lectures, and managerial wheeling and dealing (or, more often, wheeling-and-refusing-to-dealing).
