This story contains spoilers for Challengers. If you haven't had a chance to watch yet, check out our website Spoiler free review.
Love triangles are a trope as old as time, but united The central entanglement offers a new twist on cliché. We still have two boys trying to one-up each other for a girl's attention, but she's not looking for the best boy to fulfill her white picket fence fantasy. Zendaya's Tashi Duncan wants greatness. She demands this of herself and of those who wish to be in her company. It should come as no surprise that Luca Guadagnino's film is more about Patrick (Josh O'Connor) and Art's (Mike Faist) relationship with each other than it is with Tashi, but the dynamic works because Tashi doesn't. I don't like either of them. She loves tennis. and he Which Love that drives the three to the emotional connection they seek.
Jumping between timelines, the film follows the trio through college and into their careers, examining their shifting power dynamics as Patrick and Art face off in the adult timeline for their chance to compete in the US Open. It's very refreshing to see a female character, especially at the heart of a romance film, where her primary motivation isn't to find a husband and start a family. Tashi is never shy about what drives her. Art and Patrick are too distracted by their dreams and desires to listen to what she has to say.
She explains this to them after the pair hold her captive on the beach after she celebrates winning the Junior Championship early in the film. “You don't know what tennis is, it's a relationship,” she told the boys. She goes on to explain how her previous match was like falling in love and that she and her opponent “went somewhere beautiful together.” The highest level of perfect volley is what Tashi chases, while Art and Patrick spend the film trying to replace that rush for her.
Patrick thinks he's the early winner when he defeats Art in the final of their Junior Tournament the day after the beach party and gets Tashi's number, but the thing is, Tashi's attraction to Art at that point in the movie has nothing to do with how he feels. about her. She immediately warned him when she realized he was trying to manipulate her – “What makes you think I want someone to love me?” – But Art has been doing his best to be a better tennis player while Patrick is sailing to the bottom of the world rankings on the pro circuit. That's why Tashi enjoys Art's antics. When Patrick asks to stop talking about tennis, Tashi loses interest and their relationship collapses immediately. A few hours later, she tore up her kneecap and Art was there to dry her tears and pick up the pieces of her broken heart.
With her personal ambitions destroyed, Tashi focuses on training. She can't be out of the game. Patrick temporarily fades into the background and Art steps up to be the engine of Tashi's new dream. He realized that presenting himself as a best friend was not an appropriate move, so he swore that he would be the better tennis player. This is the moment when Art seems to understand Tashi the most, but it is also his downfall.
The art tactic works for a while. He and Tashi got married and had a child. They have the foundation and a lot of money. He becomes a very good, almost great, professional tennis player, but he becomes tired and eventually wants to quit before his promise to Tashi of reaching her dream can be fulfilled. When Tashi realizes that he is giving up, her emotion wanes.
United is not a film for people with a weak stomach from infidelity. If this movie was about Patrick or Art finding love with Tashi, it might be more important how you navigate the two. But there's a reason you see the moment she agreed to coach Art but never see footage of their wedding. Art resents that Tashi does not find their married life to be enough, but Tashi never wants to be the prize. Her mission throughout the entire movie is to make any of these men want greatness for themselves.
She breaks up with Patrick in the first half of the film because he doesn't want to talk about tennis and she considers him an unserious person. She cheats on Art when he declares he wants to quit the game before winning the Open, but even the infidelity is about getting Patrick to forfeit the match against Art so Tashi won't have to see her dream postponed again. She's not interested in either of them when they don't respect her love, and her love is being great at the game.
Many people might accuse Tashi of being unlikable because she doesn't reciprocate these men's affection, but in reality, she plays with them the same way they play with them. Even though she may not like them, she still cares about them. She makes sacrifices for them, especially art; It encourages them; It inspires them. They are unable to give her what she truly craves in return, and this frustration turns into resentment for everyone involved.
Each of these relationships comes with conditions. Both Patrick and Art love Tashi as long as it makes them shine or feel better about themselves; Tashi loves them as long as they make an effort to be the best after she lost the thing she loves most when she injured her knee. Art and Patrick both volunteer to be the new vessel for her dream at different parts of the film, and when they fail to make that happen for her, she not only views them as disrespectful, she sees them as powerless. In the end, they all exploit each other for their own gain. The thing about Challengers is that no one, not even Tashi, gets punished for it. In fact, they're all rewarded in the film's closing moments.
We're used to movies that prioritize functional relationships as the end goal. The destination in Challengers is a perfect tennis ball, but it's a metaphor for pushing yourself beyond your limits. When you commit to something wholeheartedly, you can become something greater than yourself. This is a trio of messy, flawed characters, but even they can find magic when they abandon their pretensions and put their naked souls on the line. It's truly inspiring to think that any of us are messy, flawed beings who can achieve true connection when we ditch the fear and resentment and hit the damn ball.
The climax of the film occurs in the final match of the Challengers Championship, culminating in Patrick and Art competing for a spot in the US Open. By the time they reach match point, Art knows that Patrick and Tashi slept together the night before and Patrick knows that Tashi won't leave Art for him. None of this matters. Here Guadagnino shows off his visual style as a director.
This final sequence is tense and hypnotic as Art and Patrick hit the ball back and forth. It's a symphony of grunts, the squeak of sneakers on asphalt, and the hollow pain of a rubber tennis ball hitting a racket. It's sweaty but also exciting as Art and Patrick finally reach the level of tennis that Tashi talked about with hair on the beach years ago. They understand each other perfectly, and so does everyone watching them. It's as if they're in love, or they don't exist. They go somewhere really beautiful together. Art reaches the net, jumps for the final shot, hits the ball, and collapses in Patrick's arms.
They embrace in the ecstasy of the moment. We don't even see who wins the match, because at this point in the story, that's not what's important. This is the first time Art and Patrick understand what Tashi has been chasing since they've known her. The resentment and passive aggression of the past ten years melted into the precipitation and the former best friends were able to connect in a way they never had before. They would never have reached that moment with another opponent, and they would never have allowed themselves to go there if it wasn't for Tashi pushing them both. They were finally able to keep their promise to her, and everyone won.
The Challengers is now playing in theaters.
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