The Challenges of Love
Notes on Challengers
The game of Tennis traditionally provides us a back and forth viewing of two players. One ahead in one moment, and one trying to catch up in the next. Yet, what if there was a third player, a mastermind coordinating things behind the scenes? Another interest of the two players at hand? A third player, if you will. So is the plot of Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers.
From the film’s pacing, to the quick pulse of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ score, to it’s Uniqlo and Augustinus Bader details, I knew from the first 10 minutes that Challengers would quickly become a memorable film of this season. Mainly, there was one idea that was on repeat in my mind throughout the entire movie, “The Medium is the Metaphor”, coined by Neil Postman in his book Amusing Ourselves to Death.
Essentially the entire 2 hour long film is one 2 hour long tennis match! And Tennis at its finest. We may be watching two strong tennis players on the court, Art and Patrick, who were once close friends and notable players within their field. We are also watching Art’s wife, coach, and once promising Tennis player, Tashi, from afar.
Earlier in the story Tashi explains the connection of tennis to relationships. The highs and lows, the anger and the joy, the loss and the triumph. She notes that two players are truly playing tennis when both are lost in the game. And Tashi is in love with the game, especially a good game. Her entire focus is on the game at hand and the next one and the next. She was more of a notable tennis player out of the three with a promising career and sponsorships until a sport related injury forced her to retire early from the world she was once married to; tennis.
In turn, Art and Patrick become her new game. She is smart enough to know both boys are mesmerized by her and knows how to use it to her advantage. After a brief fling with Patrick prior to her injury, Tashi moves on to Art. And now the game really begins.
Art and Tashi are now married with a child with Art being at the top of his game. A switch from where Tashi once was. Patrick is out of sight and mind as a struggling tennis player. The contrast between Art and Patrick is striking.
Patrick sleeps in his car in the parking lot of the Challenger Tournament the night before, while Art sleeps in a spacious hotel room. Patrick wears his worn in tennis shoes and a basic tennis outfit while Art is don in Uniqlo attire and freshly shave. Patrick’s choice of a mid break snack is a banana while Art’s is a pretty packaged protein bar. Now the two reunite for the first time in years for the challenger tournament. And their dream girl in the stands. What imagery.
What makes Challengers work in such a unique and riveting way is the set up of each plot point. While we are watching the challenger tournament we get glimpses of the past to put together how we got to this present. How this match is more than just a match, but a review of a triangle of players. In each past story we see one player is up and the other is down. Like the tennis ball at hand that crosses the net over and over.
It is also important to note that these characters are all the perfect anti-heroes. Each have given up certain values they hold in an effort to give into their self involved desires. Tashi is unfaithful to Art, Art and Patrick both betray one another slowly and quietly. All three experts in the game of manipulation, but fools in the game of love. I am left wondering if any one truly wins this game of back and forth…