antoniatejedabarros Review of King Richard

King Richard (2021)

Inspiring and beautiful, but with some bio inaccuracies/omittions

[9/10 · 28 January 2022]

I loved this movie. Will Smith is phenomenal in his portrayal of the father of Venus & Serena Williams. This is a story about effort, struggle, persistence, and love. The cast is great and the music, cinematography and story line are great too. Nevertheless, being a biographical movie, there are some important inaccuracies that bothered me (therefore I give this movie a 9 and not a 10). For instance: Venus & Serena's mother had three daughters from her previous marriage (she was a widow when she met Richard Williams), but this is not really explained in the film, and if you don't know their story, you may easily think that they had together 5 daughters (I was always thinking: why Richard was only speaking of and fighting for Venus & Serena only?). The other point is that the movie tries to sell us a "perfect family" and the fact that in 2002 the parents of Venus & Serena got divorced is not even mentioned. Also, an important detail that is not even mentioned at the end is the tragic death of Venus and Serena's half sister, Yetunde Prince, shot dead in 2003 at age 31. I understand that this movie wants to be a "feel good movie" but if it's a biographical movie, the facts should be more clear. But, overall, it's a wonderful movie about dreams, effort, patience and tenacity. 9/10.