King Richard  ★★★½

DON’T let Will Smith’s real-life antics put you off watching his performance in King Richard.

‘The Oscars Slap’ stopped me from watching this 2021 sports drama for a while, but I’m glad I eventually put that aside.

Smith is very good as Richard Williams, the matriarch of the Williams family whose relentless drive and ambition helped produce two of the greatest tennis players in history.

There is no way to categorically know whether Venus and Serena would have achieved their phenomenal success without Richard’s controlling presence which began even before they were born.

Despite not being a successful sportsman himself, Williams wrote a plan for their upbringing that would centre on achieving dominant careers in a lucrative international sport. There is also no way to truly understand the audacity and sheer craziness of this concept.

Director Reinaldo Marcus Green and writer Zach Baylin lean into a treatment of Williams as having the best of intentions for his daughters, determined to ensure their futures are not shackled by the nature of their backgrounds in terms of both race and social standing.

But they also leave the way open for audiences to reach different interpretations of Williams, from a controlling, money-driven egotist to a man of colour determined to defy those who would look down on him and his children.

Smith brings a full range of talent to the portrayal which successfully results in the audience never knowing how exactly to take him but ultimately his achievements.

He is supported by a trio of excellent performances, from Aunjanue Ellis as his wife Oracene Price who is very much his equal and the only person able to control Richard’s worst excesses, to the young Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton who play Venus and Serena Williams respectively.

Not only can these two act but the fact they can also play tennis well adds greatly to the film’s authenticity.

Jon Bernthal also appears in a fun role as coach Rick Macci who constantly battles with Richard for the hearts and minds of the two budding champions.

It’s a fascinating story, very well told in a consistently entertaining manner, about three people the likes of whom we may never see again.