Going into Challengers, I was already hooked, Zendaya, Luca Guadagnino, and a messy love triangle? Sign me up!! But while the film delivers on tension and style, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing.
Let’s start with the good. The cinematography is stunning; the way the camera moves during the matches makes you feel the pressure, the rivalry, the history between these characters. The film blurs past and present seamlessly, making the relationships feel tangled in the best way. And the performances? Zendaya commands every scene as Tashi, a character who is equal parts brilliant and emotionally ruthless. Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist have solid chemistry, bouncing between rivalry and intimacy in a way that keeps you hooked.
One of Challengers’ biggest strengths is how it builds tension, not just in the physicality of tennis but in the tangled relationships between Tashi, Art, and Patrick. There’s so much potential for an emotionally charged exploration of love, power, and control, yet the film often keeps its characters at arm’s length.
Tashi is especially fascinating. She’s ambitious, calculating, and undeniably in control of the two men caught in her orbit. But while we see how she manipulates and pushes them, we rarely get a deeper look at why. What drives her beyond her competitive nature? Does she truly love either of them, or is it all just a game to her? The film never fully answers these questions, instead keeping her motivations somewhat opaque. That can work in some films, but here, it feels like a missed opportunity to make her character even richer.
The love triangle itself also feels like it holds back at times. We get glimpses of passion, jealousy, and regret, but the film rarely lets these emotions explode in a way that feels raw and messy. There are moments that hint at deeper wounds, lingering glances, loaded silences, tense confrontations, but they don’t always lead to the kind of cathartic emotional payoff you’d expect. Instead, the story often prioritizes style over fully immersing us in the characters’ inner lives.
This restraint makes the movie feel polished but somewhat emotionally distant. It’s gripping to watch, but it doesn’t always hit as hard as it could have. With stakes as high as they are; love, betrayal, ambition, obsession, you want the film to go there, to make you feel every heartbreak, every manipulation, every unspoken regret. Instead, it flirts with these themes but never fully commits to unpacking them, leaving a sense of untapped potential.
That said, it’s still a visually exciting and stylish film that keeps you engaged from start to finish. It just left me wanting more depth, more raw emotion, more of that gut-punch storytelling Guadagnino does so well. A solid watch, but not an instant classic. A 6/10 for me.
Did this film stir something in you too? I’d love to know what stayed with you after the credits rolled.
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