I don’t follow sports that much. I am not a sports fan. I can name a number of pro athletes, but I don’t know much beyond their names and sports in many cases. As such, when I heard that there was a new movie coming out about Richard Williams, father to Venus and Serena Williams, that was a bit baffling to me. Why would the movie be about Richard? Wouldn’t either Venus or Serena or both of them be more interesting subjects for a biopic?
My pal William Watson then informed me that Richard was likewise worthy of a biopic, and now that movie is out on HBO Max with Will Smith in the lead role. Would I learn a thing or two with King Richard?
Richard Williams (Smith) is the proud father of Venus and Serena (Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton). At some point in the past, Richard learned how much female tennis players make, and seeing that as an opportunity to get his family out of a bad neighborhood, makes it his life’s purpose to make sure his two daughters get there. To that end, he’s in s state of nonstop hustle along with his wife Brandy (Aunjamue Ellis) and the three daughters she had in a previous relationship. Richard is a man who insists on success in all fields, making sure his daughters, biological or otherwise, do well in school and understand they must always strive to be the best. When he’s not taking Venus and Serena out to train in a sport that he is at best self-trained in, he’s trying to find a pro coach to take the girls on and dealing with a hostile neighbor across the street. Both Venus and Serena are incredibly gifted players, so can Richard get other people to see their skill and help them nurture it, even as he deviates from the standard path for female tennis players to hit it big?
And can Richard get past his own quirks? Richard isn’t above letting his girls, all of them, walk home for the crime of what he perceives as bragging, and he uses Disney movies to teach lessons on humility without saying what they should be looking for. There’s an undercurrent that suggests that Richard may be doing all this more for himself as an extreme stage dad and not for his two girls. Is that true? The movie asks that question, and the end result may be an answer.
I am hesitant to say whether or not the movie really answers that question. I would think it does, but the way Will Smith plays the character, he’s so charming and largely convincing that whether or not he’s doing it for himself or for his girls, he certainly knows who he thinks he’s doing it for. Richard does have his faults, but the movie does not dig too deeply into those faults outside of a big argument between Brandy and Richard. It is clear that Richard loves his girls, and many of the decisions he makes on their behalf does seem to be at least his idea of what’s good for them. Factor in as well that Venus and Serena both acted as executive producer, and it’s unlikely the movie would do much to make Richard look bad. I did greatly enjoy Smith’s portrayal of the man, played as a man who really cares for his family but is basically convinced his own plan is the only way forward, and how he learned a few things along the way while interrupting TV interviews and leaving out crucial details when he signs contracts for tennis coaches. But the movie likewise gives a lot of credit to Brandy as well, so at no point does the movie play it as all Richard, only that Richard was very much an irresistible driving force that led the way for his daughters’ successes until they were each old enough to make their own decisions.
After a certain point, the movie starts to focus more on Venus as the central player. That makes a certain amount of sense. Venus was the older sister, and she went pro first. Meanwhile, though, Serena was left to hustle on her own, training by herself while Venus got instruction from actual professionals and even entering a tournament on her own without telling her parents while Venus was off competing somewhere else. I also might have liked more perspective on the three stepsisters, particularly oldest sister Tunde, who grew up to be a personal assistant to Venus and Serena before dying young when some drug dealers mistook her SUV for a rival gang’s car. True, a character as big in life as Richard, and played so magnificently by Smith using all of the charisma at his disposal, is going to naturally soak up the spotlight in a movie about Richard, but I just felt there are still a lot of stories to be told about that extended family. That’s actually a compliment in how the movie gave out just enough to entice me to want to know more, but if we’re going to get King Richard’s story, this was an excellent way to go about it. I just would have liked a little more about how he was with the girls other than Venus.
Grade: B+
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