King Richard (5 Stars)

Have you noticed the recent trend of not announcing film titles until the end of the film? It's been happening sporadically for decades, but it's become a big habit in the last two years. It became most apparent to be in this year's Stuttgart Fantasy Film Festival, where almost half the films showed the title at the end.

Today I went to see a local cinema's Sneak Peek, as they call it. Every Monday a film is shown before its official release date, but it's a heavily guarded secret what film it is until it starts. Today I sat down and waited with baited breath. The film started. Will Smith walked across the screen, evidently living in a medium quality black ghetto, not too primitive but definitely not posh. I groaned. Will Smith has never been one of my favourite actors, and today I was hoping for "The King's Man". But what was the film called? I had no idea. No title screen. Nothing. When the credits finally rolled, two and a half hours later, I still didn't know. It wasn't until the middle of the credits that the title appeared on screen: "King Richard".

That's unusual, even for today. Many films have the title at the end of the film, before the credits, but I've never seen a film that postpones the title until the middle of the credits. Curious.

Before I describe the film itself, I have to say that Will Smith's performance won me over. I'll never criticise him again. I think my prejudice against him stems from the "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" series, which I absolutely hated. I should forget it. He's made many excellent films since then. I think that in every film of his that I've reviewed I write "I don't like Will Smith, but in this film he's great". I have to take that back. He's always great.

The film is the true story about Richard Williams, the father of the tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams. If I was paying attention properly, it takes place from 1990 to 1994. I'm sure about the ending year, but not the start. I'll have to check next time I watch it.

Was Richard Williams crazy or a visionary? If I'd known him at the time I would have said the former. He read that the winner of a women's tennis tournament earned as much in four days as he did in a year, so he decided that his two daughters would become tennis champions. Which two daughters? He already had three daughters, but he was referring to two daughters who weren't yet born. His wife wasn't even pregnant. Does he sound crazy already? The first part of his prophecy came true. His next two children were girls: Venus in 1980 and Serena in 1981. He began to teach them tennis from the age of four. They trained hard. They even had to practise at the local tennis court when it was raining.

And he kept pushing them. He found a professional trainer, Paul Cohen, who recognised the girls' talent and was willing to train Venus free of charge. He was only willing to coach one girl for free, and Richard couldn't afford to pay for Serena. All the time Richard insisted that the girls shouldn't neglect their school education. He said that Venus could only continue with her training if she was top of her class. That's heavy pressure. Most children would turn against a parent like that, but the girls loved their father.

Richard wanted to control the business for his daughters, often contradicting the advice of experts. As their manager, in fact if not in name, he decided what they would sign. When 14-year-old Venus was offered a $3 million advertising contract, he told her to turn it down. The next day the offer was increased to $4 million. He still told her to refuse it. Crazy? Less than a year later she signed a contract for $12 million. Richard Williams seemed crazy, but all of his dreams came true.

The film is overwhelmingly powerful. Richard Williams isn't always a pleasant character, but throughout the film Will Smith plays him in such a way that we sympathise with his faults. "King Richard" is one of the best films I've seen this year. It's almost time to put together my top 10 list for 2021. It'll have a high place.