King Richard: The Ultimate Real-Life Sports-Dad Story, Doubts and All

By Jim Slotek

Rating: B-plus

Whether or not they read about Malcolm Gladwell’s “10,000 hours” theory, many, if not most professional athletes have a parent who pushed them to grind out at least that many hours of practice.

And our narrative for them is either villain or hero. “Soccer mom” is practically a pejorative, synonymous with screaming invective from the stands. Meanwhile, Walter Gretzky is something akin to a national icon.

King Richard, in which Will Smith plays Richard Williams, the manic and driven dad behind the careers of his tennis-playing daughters Venus and Serena Williams, comes across as both at various points. This is one of the great strengths in Reinaldo Marcus Green’s film, since real human beings seldom fit narratives.

Serena (Demi Singleton) and Venus (Saniyya Sidney) get tips from dad Richard (Will Smith)

We know going in that Richard’s daughters will be two of the greatest tennis players of all time. And to hear him tell it, he visualized them before they were even conceived, let alone born, as if he willed them to life to make history.

And true to his vision, he makes every sacrifice to train his two most athletically talented daughters (he has five) in the least likely, rundown court in Compton, California. Said sacrifices include taking beatings from the gangs who consider the court their turf and who make degrading comments about his daughters, compelling him to step up for even more beatings.

Richard, we hear, has “never been given respect.” This is a telling comment early in the movie, especially if you’re wondering why this isn’t a movie about Venus and Serena, but about their dad. Even Rick Macci (Jon Bernthal), the coach who takes on the Venus/Serena project at the cusp of Venus’s entry into professional tennis, complains about the interview-hogging dad, noting that the entire project has become “the Richard Williams Show.”

PROUDLY SUPPORTS ORIGINAL-CIN

But an odd epiphany is built into Richard’s character arc. From his visions of personal triumph on the dream of his daughters’ success, he becomes soured on that same success early, when Paul Cohen (Tony Goldwyn), the sometime coach of John McEnroe and Pete Sampras, puts Venus in the junior circuit, where she wins 60-plus matches. We see her beat blonde girl after blonde girl, all of whom effectively have tantrums after being beaten by her (racism isn’t explicitly mentioned for a while in the film, but the suggestion is clear – though to be fair, a few of the blondes do come around).

Their behavior, and that of their parents, plus the country club atmosphere that surrounds the basically all-white sport, makes Richard’s head turn. Add to that the Rodney King police beating and the drug arrest of Macci’s own star pupil Jennifer Capriati, lead Richard to make what is considered an insane decision. 

He removes his daughters from junior tennis, making them concentrate on school and family, while continuing to practice until they’re ready to turn pro.

In short, his 180-turn is from himself to his daughters.

In the course of the two-and-a-half-hour movie, King Richard will return to something closer to form, but these changes of character are what takes a movie with the familiar beats of the sports genre (including a big David v. Goliath finish) and elevates it. When the movie opens, and Richard writes a motivational slogan on the graffiti-ed court (“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”), I was worried King Richard would come to resemble the platitudinous The Pursuit of Happyness, which earned Smith an Oscar nomination, but is not one of my favourites of his films. I was pleasantly surprised thereafter.

An important piece of King Richard is the girls’ mother, Oracene  (Aunjanue Ellis), who does her own coaching of Serena when Venus is the one getting all the attention, and who plants Richard’s feet back on the ground with extreme prejudice when necessary.

And on the tennis side, it is indeed Venus (Saniyya Sidney) who gets all the attention, and who puts punctuation on the story. Both she and Demi Singleton (who plays Serena) play little girls with big serves, who say, “Yes, daddy!” in unison, smile brightly and show occasional steel. It’s not the biggest job in the movie, but it’s important to be reminded that they’re what this is ultimately all about.

King Richard. Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green. Starring Will Smith, Aunjanue Ellis and Saniyya Sidney. Opens in theatres Friday, November 19.