Film review: The Power of the Dog

A searing western from the director of The Piano

Benedict Cumberbatch is ‘spectacular’ in The Power of the Dog
Benedict Cumberbatch is ‘spectacular’ in The Power of the Dog
(Image credit: Netflix)

Venus and Serena Williams’s father Richard resolved that his daughters would become tennis stars before they were even born, said David Sexton in the New Statesman. Having seen Virginia Ruzici win $40,000 in a tournament, he drew up a 78-page life plan for the girls, which was then “rigorously” enforced. King Richard follows his efforts to “stick to the plan”, from the sisters’ childhood years in Compton, California, to 1994, when Venus made her professional debut at the age of 14. The film, starring Will Smith in the title role, has been endorsed by the family, so it’s “feel-good through and through”: this is no exposé of overweening parental ambition. It’s not even really about tennis. What we have here is yet “another rehearsal of the American dream” – a study of how the individual can achieve the impossible, “whatever the adverse circumstances”.

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