King Richard (2021)

[DanaK]

I thought this was pretty good and Will Smith and the actress who played his wife did good jobs. Though for a movie blessed by Venus and Serena Williams about their dad, he didn’t come off too well

I thought Richard Williams was too contradictory too often, like he wanted the girls to have fun and pay attention to family and church but also be the best in the world at tennis. It’s hard to do both equally well. And did he want them to just have fun or get as much money as they could from a deal as the shoe promotion offer suggested? I also thought he came off as a shyster much of the time, taking advantage of people giving their time and money to train the girls and then revealing he wasn’t going to do things like they believed he had said they would. Like that last trainer where the trainer spent a lot of his time and business money training the girls and giving the family a home and other things, only for Richard to continually put off when the girls would go pro and taking them out of the Juniors circuit without discussing it first. And sure, the girls did become world champions so maybe he kind of was right, but it seemed he was only too willing to keep Serena from playing any competition until she was 18 so she had to beg him at 14 to play until he relented

[AngieBee1]

I liked that it wasn't a saccharine, revisionist look at Richard Williams (had no idea about his other family). Like all "stage" parents they can be overbearing and overzealous with how they push their kids. While I did find him too uncompromising when it came to what people were offering him (namely Jon Bernthal's character), I completely understood why he did it: he was acting as if they were already champions because in his mind that was a given. Usually, managers get that demanding after their client finds success, but he was so sure of Serena and Venus that to him it was a given so he could act this way because he knew it would pay off for everyone involved.

I truly believed he wanted them to have fun all the while pushing them towards being champions. He wanted them to have a well-rounded life. So yeah, he worked those girls but he and Oracene made sure they still had other things going on beyond tennis.

The only eyebrow raising thing for me was at the end and Richard tells Serena (paraphrasing here) that she would be the greatest player ever so that's why he let Venus start out first. Almost like, "Your sister is going to have a career in it but you're going to be an icon in the sport." And maybe that was close to how Richard felt - that of the two, Serena was the one who was better so before she could obliterate everyone, let Venus have the spotlight. But to me it felt like the writers taking the reality of where their careers currently are and retroactively acting as if this was always the plan; pre-ordained almost.

[calliope1975]

1 hour ago, AngieBee1 said:

But to me it felt like the writers taking the reality of where their careers currently are and retroactively acting as if this was always the plan; pre-ordained almost.

I agree. It definitely felt like a wink to the audience. 

I also liked that Richard wasn't portrayed as a paragon. He was an asshole a lot of the time, and I hope Aunjanue Ellis gets award recognition because when she read him for filth, I felt that. I suppose the film could have been more explicit about his other kids and the cheating, but it was implied enough that I was fine without that. I see his boastfulness and confidence as something he cultivated from his experience as a Black man in America raising Black kids, especially girls. Did his plan work? Obviously. Would it work for every kid, sport, family? Likely not. But it's an interesting story, and I'm glad it was told. 

[Shannon L.]

I saw this last week and really liked it, even though I cringed at times. I understand what Richard was trying to do and why and appreciated it, but sometimes the way he went about it was really uncomfortable. He and his wife did raise some amazing women, though. I thought Will Smith was amazing and deserves nominations this award season. At times, I'd forget it was him.  And, I agree with @calliope1975 that Aunjanue Ellis also deserves recognition.  That moment where she gave him a piece of her mind was a some top notch acting.

[Avabelle]

I don’t think Richard predicted how Serena would fare so above is most certainly a wink to the audience. I thought the decision to focus on Venus was straight forward - she was the older of the two.

[Ms Blue Jay]

The actor that affected me the most was actually Saniyya Sidney who played Venus!  She broke my heart.  But, Will did a great job also because I thought that was a great transformation.

This movie definitely goes into my Top 5 of 2021.  I really liked it, everything about it.  No complaints. I was really swept up in the story.  Biopics never get sequels but I want one anyway.  LOL.

Edited January 2, 2022 by Ms Blue Jay

[Empress1]

On 1/2/2022 at 6:22 PM, Ms Blue Jay said:

The actor that affected me the most was actually Saniyya Sidney who played Venus!  She broke my heart. 

I thought she was terrific. I like that she's an actual kid (they didn't hire a 25-year-old to play her) - a little acne, kind of awkward, braces. But she had so much heart. When she was crying in the locker room after, I wanted to give her a huge hug. It hit me in that moment how young she was.

And I LOVED, and still love, the Williams sisters' confidence. It takes a tremendous amount of heart to be a Black person in a white world, and an even whiter microcosm of that world (those country clubs? Yikes) and have that level of confidence when the world is telling you you shouldn't.

On 12/10/2021 at 3:48 PM, Shannon L. said:

And, I agree with @calliope1975 that Aunjanue Ellis also deserves recognition.  That moment where she gave him a piece of her mind was a some top notch acting.

Yes. Aunjanue Ellis has been in the game for a long time and I'm glad she's getting some recognition (she also got some for the short-lived Lovecraft Country).

I didn't realize how many kids Richard has so I looked it up after I watched the movie. He has at least 8: 5 from a first marriage that he straight up abandoned, Venus and Serena, and a son with his third wife, who is only a year older than Venus. They're divorced now. His first wife claims he has a bunch of other kids all over the place but I don't know if that's true. I also didn't realize that the other three sisters aren't Richard's. Big blended family.

I can't say that I liked Richard, but I guess I respected him. His love for and faith in his kids is something else.

On 12/10/2021 at 3:48 PM, Shannon L. said:

I understand what Richard was trying to do and why and appreciated it, but sometimes the way he went about it was really uncomfortable.

Yeah. When they were out there in the rain I was like "Seriously?" I kept thinking how exhausted those kids must have been between school, where they were also expected to thrive, and tennis.

[SeanC]

58 minutes ago, Empress1 said:

I didn't realize how many kids Richard has so I looked it up after I watched the movie. He has at least 8: 5 from a first marriage that he straight up abandoned, Venus and Serena, and a son with his third wife, who is only a year older than Venus. They're divorced now. His first wife claims he has a bunch of other kids all over the place but I don't know if that's true. I also didn't realize that the other three sisters aren't Richard's. Big blended family.

I can't say that I liked Richard, but I guess I respected him. His love for and faith in his kids is something else.

I quite liked the movie, but the one area where you can really tell this was a Williams Family-Approved Production is that there's zero examination of the tension between Richard heartwarmingly insisting that he'll always be there for his kids because of how his dad failed him and the reality the movie itself acknowledges that he ran out on his first family and never looked back.

[Amethyst]

Good movie, although a little long.  Will's performance was great, but I thought Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton were excellent.  I look forward to seeing more of them.  

On 12/10/2021 at 1:02 PM, AngieBee1 said:

But to me it felt like the writers taking the reality of where their careers currently are and retroactively acting as if this was always the plan; pre-ordained almost.

I agree.  Telling Serena something like "I promise that one day you'll have your moment in the sun" would have had the same effect.  But Richard openly predicting that Serena would best Venus eventually was just too convenient.  Frankly, the fact that no one really challenged him on the plan was too convenient. 

It's obvious how much work went into that 78 page plan and how important it was to Richard, but things happen.  Injuries, illness, loss of income, etc.  There couldn't be any deviation from the plan, but you can't anticipate everything.  And he wanted to have it both ways; for Venus and Serena to grow up with normal childhoods and attend school, but for them to still be tennis champions.  I was glad when Oracene fought back and wouldn't let him ignore Venus' dreams of going pro because of his own insecurities.

[Hudson0325]

Quote

But Richard openly predicting that Serena would best Venus eventually was just too convenient

Except he really did. I’m a long time tennis fan and remember when Venus burst onto the scene. I can recall a match when commentators were pouring well deserved accolades on her, one remarked, quite incredulously, that Richard was telling the press that Venus’ younger sister was going to be even better.