King Richard is a heart-warming, classic sports movie that just fell short.

Director Reinaldo Marcus Green tells the story of Venus Williams’s rise to stardom. It highlights the hard work and sacrifices each member of the family made to make it out of Compton.

Green’s choice of lead daughter may have been the wrong one. Scenes starring Serena, played by Demi Singleton, were the most compelling due to her constraints and ultimate success. As the more famous sister, fans would be more curious to see how she worked her way to the top.

Serena Williams takes a backseat when new coach Paul Cohen only agrees to coach one Williams sister free of charge. To include Serena, her father Richard decides to bring a camcorder and tripod to record each practice. Serena and her mother Oracene use these tapes to train outside of Cohen’s country club, on the cracked Compton courts. The scene goes back and forth between the two locations with Williams sisters performing identical drills. The scene illustrated the close-knit Williams family and Serena’s immense dedication to tennis, leaving viewers with goosebumps.

An additional inspiring scene occurs when Serena secretly enters a tournament that Venus was participating in. Richard discovers what Serena had done after a spectator approaches him about watching his other talented daughter play. At first, he was upset with her dishonesty, but support from his wife persuaded him to watch Serena play with pride. Richard then calls out to Serena with his slogan, “Just have fun!” Through this scene, viewers could clearly see both the compassionate side of the intense “King Richard” and Serena’s passion for tennis.

Richard was a multidimensional character who pushed his daughters to succeed, organizing intense early-morning and late-night training in all conditions. Richard supposedly created a 78-page plan to make Venus and Serena champions before they were even born. One neighbor thought that Richard’s treatment of his kids was too harsh and called Child Protective Services to their house. However, Richard made a bold move and pulled Venus out of the junior tournament circuit to prevent burnout. This challenged the typical course of young athletes headed for fame, showing that Richard truly had Venus’s best interests at heart.

I would rate this movie a 3.5 out of 5 stars. It was a dynamic movie with a good pace and complex characters. Even so, the lengthy 144-minute film left viewers wanting more, more of Serena.