Movie Review ‘King Richard’: Will Smith Movie Sidelines Venus & Serena

Venus and Serena Williams didn’t get to be who they are by accident. But the new Will Smith–produced movie starring Will Smith, in which practically every scene is built around Will Smith giving a prophetic speech or a motivational speech or an angry speech, makes the sororal tennis champs seem almost incidental to their own rise to greatness. “You gonna be the greatest of all time,” Smith tells the sisters as their father. “You know how I know? Because I planned for it.” Well, it’s in the bag, then, Dad.

Smith, however, is still one of the most charming men on Earth, so King Richard, the story of Richard Williams, mostly works. As a portrait of a fiercely dedicated father who was born poor in Shreveport, La., in 1942 and knew what traps awaited people from Compton, Calif., where he raised the two girls and their three half-sisters with his wife Oracene Price, the movie is uplifting in the way 1980s Oscar movies used to be. Unfortunately, it also falls prey in spots to contrivance, and has a very-2020s habit of making knee-jerk references to white racism that don’t belong here. Out of nowhere, for instance, it brings up the Rodney King story, as though police brutality were a major potential obstacle to Venus (Saniyya Sidney) and Serena (Demi Singleton).

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Kyle Smith

Kyle Smith is the film critic for the Wall Street Journal.

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Venus and Serena Williams didn’t get to be who they are by accident. But the new Will Smith–produced movie starring Will Smith, in which practically every scene is built around Will Smith giving a prophetic speech or a motivational speech or an angry speech, makes the sororal tennis champs seem almost incidental to their own rise to greatness. “You gonna be the greatest of all time,” Smith tells the sisters as their father. “You know how I know? Because I planned for it.” Well, it’s in the bag, then, Dad.

Smith, however, is still one of the most charming men on Earth, so King Richard, the story of Richard Williams, mostly works. As a portrait of a fiercely dedicated father who was born poor in Shreveport, La., in 1942 and knew what traps awaited people from Compton, Calif., where he raised the two girls and their three half-sisters with his wife Oracene Price, the movie is uplifting in the way 1980s Oscar movies used to be. Unfortunately, it also falls prey in spots to contrivance, and has a very-2020s habit of making knee-jerk references to white racism that don’t belong here. Out of nowhere, for instance, it brings up the Rodney King story, as though police brutality were a major potential obstacle to Venus (Saniyya Sidney) and Serena (Demi Singleton).