Reinaldo Marcus Green’s King Richard is a pleasant enough crowd-pleaser that may do a better job than most major studio dramas at exploring issues of race within American society, but it fails to fully engage with the complexity of the titular real-life character at the center of the film – opting instead for heart-warming and saccharine drama. Will Smith is always a delight to watch onscreen, and while there are moments in this performance of his that really shine, for far too much of the film, it comes across as an impersonation of this public figure rather than a true character study. Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton, the two young actresses portraying Venus and Serena Williams, are fantastic and convey all of the hope, determination, and weight of the pressures placed upon their shoulders in two incredibly nuanced performances. It’s refreshing to see the film provide us with a few moments that call into question some of the harsher choices made by Richard Williams during the training of this daughters, but so much of the film is spent abandoning any semblance of nuance and justifying all of his decisions since they were part of his plan for success – not to mention conveniently leaving out some of his more egregious acts of control over the family. The resulting portrait becomes a romanticized look at the American Dream that never calls into question the myth that tells us, “As long as you have a dream and a plan, and as long as you work hard, you’ll make make those dreams a reality.” I appreciate the fact that it’s tempered by the honesty of the racism embedded in the world of tennis, but it’s not enough to truly ground the film’s rose-tinted glow.