But it doesn’t inhibit it from being enjoyable. That push and pull between frankness and a spin that flatters Williams keeps Green’s King Richard from being a truly great film. That leads to friction between the glossy, wholesome triumphs common to most sports biopics, and the uneasy interrogation needed for a character like Williams, a vain leader who’s guiding his daughters toward tremendous triumphs, while feeding them uncomfortable and even disturbing messages. This film, without explicitly saying so, is a version of events approved by the real-life Williams family. Zach Baylin’s script, unfortunately, doesn’t fully explicate the complicated, internal politics working within Williams. To Williams, a Black man who grew up in Louisiana, humility and docility is how Black folks survived in the white-dominated South. He shows his daughters Cinderella because the film, in his mind, teaches humbleness and dignity.
Williams doesn’t take kindly to what he perceives as Venus bragging about beating a white girl. Venus has just finished wiping the floor with a rival en route to winning another junior tennis competition.
In Reinaldo Marcus Green’s charming, well-acted inspirational sports film King Richard, Richard Williams (Will Smith) shows Walt Disney’s Cinderella to his tennis-prodigy daughters, Venus (Saniyya Sidney) and Serena (Demi Singleton).
