Un Golden Globe for Best Actor just won, and probably a nomination for the next Oscars. For Will Smith awards season could be very profitable. The role of Richard Williams in A winning family – King Richard after all it is tailor-made for the actor, plus it is one of the most exceptional stories of the recent past.
Legendary story of the father – and manager – by Serena and Venus Williams, transformed into tennis queens who have conquered in total from the late 90s onwards 30 slam.
A charismatic figure, and much discussed for its certainly unorthodox methods of training, which has undoubtedly fulfilled the dream of a lifetime. Become rich and above all get moral ransom from racism and discrimination. For himself and his family.
Path to happy up but not without dark sides, unfortunately not developed from a too incomplete script.
A winning family – King Richard: the plot
The film follows the rise to glory of Venus and Serena Williams through the iron will of his father Richard, the figure on which the film focuses. A dreamer who, with dedication and perseverance, rather than making a bet with himself, he simply methodically embarks on the road to success. The only unknown is time.
Richard, Venus and Serena Williams in 1991. (Getty Images)
Driven therefore by a clear vision, Richard builds a plan to bring Venus and Serena to the top of tennis. From the Compton fields in California – where he gets beaten up every other day by gangs – he takes them to Florida and there he begins to train them – up to the world limelight (the phase from which all the legend of his unusual ways of managing the education of his daughters derives).
An unprecedented role for Will Smith
Rather than the prodigies Serena and Venus, the focus of the narrative is Richard – alternately lively, touching and stimulating. Zach Baylin – screenwriter – chooses an oblique approach focusing on the man whose determination (and sometimes ego) made his daughters champions.
The first point in favor of the film is certainly the interpretation of Will Smith, struggling (which is more unique than rare) with a role that finally frees him from that cage of funny, fascinating and one-dimensional characters that have marked his career.
Richard Williams is in fact an uncomfortable and angular man; shaped by poverty, violence and discrimination, certainly not welcome in the rarefied circles of the tennis elite.
(Warner Bros.)
Many lights, few shadows
Alternating seamlessly between the domestic and competitive worlds, predominantly dominated by wealthy whites, the film shows positives and negatives in both environments. But the script, unfortunately, he does not fully investigate the contradictory figure by Richard.
Also because, without saying it explicitly, King Richard it is a family-approved “version of events” – Venus and Serena are executive producers – so it makes sense to expect a biopic with more light than shade.
Thus, in the almost 150 minutes of narration, he is left on the sidelines the doubt that King Richard was nothing more than a vain father-master, a control freak who foments his daughters out of need for reflected glory.
Despite these shortcomings, and excessive length, the comedy and social struggle tones of a black family common and unlikely that manages to emerge in a space dominated by whites are well blended. While not delving into racial dynamics as he could have done.
The evident intention of sanctifying the figure of Richard in some way also penalizes the sports scenes, certainly not tense and well shot as in other films on the subject.
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