I'm back and beware of the spoilers.
Pros: This is a slick film with some truly shocking plot twists and groundbreaking camera angles. In what is essentially a three-person drama, each actor delivers some of the best work of their career with Zendaya leading the way as Tashi Duncan, one of the best young tennis stars in the world only to suffer a career-ending knee injury and settles for coaching one of her love interests, Art Donaldson (West Side Story's Mike Faist) who loves her far more than she could ever love him. Lurking in the background is Patrick Zweig (Josh O'Connor) whose promising tennis career has floundered so much that he's resorted to sleeping in his car. But it's his returned presence that breaks the fragile eco-system that is the Donaldson marriage.
Cons: Despite the excellent performances, the viewer is fed only breadcrumbs about their pasts and don't fully understand their motivations, especially the cold ruthlessness of Tashi when her parents remain actively involved in her life, her mother basically raising Tashi's daughter. And that cliffhanger of an ending is such a wicked thing to do to the audience but it still remains unforgettable and packs a powerful punch.
Recommend: Probably
Grade: B+
Side Notes:
-The plot twist is actually a two-fold, one is that Tashi tells Art she'll leave him if he loses the simple match and then backhands and asks Patrick to lose on purpose, and then sleeps with Patrick anyway. And then during the match, Patrick uses the secret simple used when they were younger to indicate to Art that he slept with Tashi, leading to an epic match point.
-I'm grateful that Lily's paternity to appears to fall in Art's court, no pun intended.
-Zendaya is just the latest Spiderman actress to play a tennis star later on, joining the ranks of Kirsten Dunst and Emma Stone.
-That wind storm is epically wild and quite realistic with all the trash blowing around.
-I would like to know why Tashi married Art.
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