CHALLENGERS feature movie review 

• Metro Goldwyn Mayer

Studio filmmaking has been, unsurprisingly, slow to recognize the reality that romantic stories don't only come in one "boy meets girl" size. Love stories are one of the foundational pieces of cinema history, but it's only been within the past 10 – 15 years that anything outside of niche arthouse fare has been willing to acknowledge that "boy meets boy" and "girl meets girl" are also things that happen in the world, and with some regularity. So yeah, not particularly shocking that Hollywood has been skittish about anything that could be construed as "boy and boy meet girl."

That is, however, the juice that fuels Challengers, a propulsive mix of sports drama and romantic drama that picks perhaps the ideal sport in tennis—one that we're most used to seeing as a one-on-one scenario, but which can also take on other configurations—as its backdrop. Director Luca Guadagnino and writer Justin Kuritzkes provide a foundation for three great performances to explore how you might find that your "better half" is a better two halves.

It opens in more or less the present day, with the finals of a low-level pro tennis tournament in upstate New York. The participants in that finals, however, make it more interesting than it might otherwise be. Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) is a veteran tour champion who has hit a bad streak, and is trying to get his confidence back; Patrick Zweig (Josh O'Connor) is Art's one-time doubles partner, whose career never lived up to his talent and who finds himself living out of his car. And sitting in the stands at center court is Tashi (Zendaya), the once-promising star whose career was cut short by injury, and who has a complicated history with both of them.

The narrative soon backtracks 13 years to the point when Art, Patrick and Tashi are all 17-year-olds on the juniors circuit, part of a structure that repeatedly darts back and forth in the chronology. It's a somewhat risky move, but it proves brilliant at setting up the stakes of the present-day showdown between Art and Patrick, each subsequent revelation about the complex dynamic of this trio adding to the tension.

It's also a great way to develop character, and the three principals all nail their characters. Zendaya's the fiery apex of this triangle, and she has a perfect sense for the kind of alpha competitor Tashi was, and how she attempts to re-direct that drive once she can no longer play herself. O'Connor oozes charisma as Patrick, but also captures the arrogance of a scion of privilege lacking the discipline to maximize his ability. And Faist has the complicated task of bringing to life a character who by design lacks the force of personality both Tashi and Patrick have—someone who's happy to make tennis his career, but not the only thing in his life that matters.

What Challengers pulls off is showing why there always seems to be something off when any two of these characters are paired off in a configuration that omits the third. Tashi has the work ethic and the killer instinct, Patrick has the raw talent, and Art has the steadying personality, and it becomes increasingly clear that the only thing that creates friction between them is their inability to realize that they all belong together. Luca Guadagnino is certainly no stranger to overseeing unconventional romantic stories—like Call Me By Your Name, or the cannibal love story of Bones and All—and it's part of his gift that he can tell this story without judgment.

It's also part of Guadagnino's approach to Challengers that he goes all-in on big visuals, and an accompanying big score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. When there's a scene involving a secretive rendezvous, it takes place during a raging storm and in slow motion, like a perfume commercial with the wind machine cranked up to hurricane force. And the climactic set of the big showdown match includes every conceivable camera placement, from a ball's-eye-view to underneath the feet of the competitors. It all proves to be a touch distracting, but only because the drama on the court doesn't really demand so many bells and whistles to create excitement. Everything we need to build the sense of what matters in this match comes from the characters themselves, and from the hope that this happily ever after might involve a mixed throuple.