INTERPRETIVE KEY:

In 2021, after reading Justin Kuritzkes’ screenplay, Amy Pascal, founder of the production company Pascal Pictures, sought the collaboration of Luca Guadagnino, a director she had long wanted to work with. She sent him the script while the Italian director was shooting the short film O Night Divine. Impressed by the screenplay, Guadagnino decided to direct the project. Pascal later stated, “It was time for there to be kisses in movies, and Luca was the right person to bring this to life.” Guadagnino himself said, “I know almost nothing about tennis, but I know a lot about desire.”

What we are interested in analyzing is the representation of three forms of desire, those of the three main characters, and how they interact with each other.
The characters outlined by Kuritzkes can be schematized according to a desire (what they consciously want) and a need (what they truly need to grow):

Tashi Duncan

• Desire: To win at all costs. Tashi is a former tennis prodigy who had to abandon her playing career due to an injury. She now channels her ambition into Art, her husband, trying to turn him into a champion.
• Need: To accept vulnerability and failure. Tashi must understand that success is not the only measure of life and that she cannot control everything, including the feelings of those around her.

Patrick Zweig

• Desire: To reclaim his place as a natural talent and to seduce Tashi. Patrick is the most charismatic and instinctive player, but also the most self-destructive. He wants to prove he is the best and rekindle his bond with Tashi.
• Need: To give true meaning to his life beyond competition and achievements. He must stop living in the past and find a direction not dictated solely by a desire for revenge or validation.

Art Donaldson

• Desire: To prove he is a winner. Art is methodical and disciplined, but he always feels the need to demonstrate his worth, especially in comparison to Patrick.
• Need: To understand that his value does not depend on Tashi’s approval or winning. Art must find confidence in himself outside of the toxic dynamics of competition and possession.

Now let’s examine how the characters interact with each other, playing out their desires and needs.
Patrick and Art in 2006 are known in the tennis world as “ice and fire.” Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) is the “ice,” more rational, strategic, and disciplined in his approach to tennis and life; Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor) is the “fire”: impulsive, passionate, and rebellious, playing with instinct and energy. Between them, there is much more than a typical male friendship—their looks betray passion, languid and intense. One cannot help but recall the latent sexual tension between Starsky & Hutch, the famous detective duo from the 1970s TV series. In that case, too, one was impulsive and passionate (Starsky, the dark-haired one) and the other more rational and methodical (Hutch, the blonde).

Here are some key moments:

• In a hotel room after the party, Patrick tells Tashi about teaching Art how to masturbate. Art responds that Patrick was precocious while he was normal, but in the end, Tashi asks who came first.
• Also in the room, Tashi, Patrick, and Art kiss each other until Tashi steps back and watches Patrick and Art kiss passionately.
• Patrick watches Tashi play and tells Art that he would have sex with her with a racket.
• Patrick and Art meet in the sauna at the Challenger in New Rochelle, and Patrick confronts Art completely naked, but his friend and rival tells him, “You can put your dick away now.”
• Patrick and Art always share everything; it’s their way of being intimate, culminating in the final scene when Patrick places the ball in the “Y” of the racket to signal to Art that he slept with Tashi. This gesture brings Art back into the game, both in tennis and in life.

They depend on each other and on their competitive relationship—they can clash and kiss endlessly.

Between Patrick and Tashi, there is pure chemistry. Only between the two of them do we see scenes that precede or follow a sexual encounter. Patrick behaves very aggressively, invading personal space, approaching closely when speaking, imposing his physicality—behaviors that Tashi knows how to handle skillfully. Between them, communication operates on a primal level, the visceral language of desire. Patrick falls for Tashi when he hears her scream during a match after scoring a point—a scream of pure pleasure, orgasmic.

The three main scenes illustrating their relationship:

• In the university dorm room, as Tashi and Patrick are about to have sex, she tells him he should feel threatened by Art because he’s handsome, smart, and, above all, plays tennis very well. Patrick responds that he thought he was no longer competing with Art for Tashi, and she tells him that it’s his problem if he shouts victory before the match ends. He asks her to stop talking about tennis, and she interrupts the petting. This leads to a discussion that eventually results in a breakup, during which Patrick rejects Tashi’s proposal to become his coach. She asks him what she’s for, what purpose she serves if not for tennis. As a cheerleader and lover, he could have anyone because, she says, he has charm, talent, and a big dick. Patrick accuses her of playing college tennis instead of going Pro, and she accuses him of wasting his talent by repeatedly losing. Essentially, she is willing to make him a true champion in exchange for a role of power he refuses to grant.
• Before the final match with Art, Patrick asks Tashi to be his coach. She refuses, but he tells her that deep down she hates Art because she knows he has given up, yet he won’t stop playing tennis until she allows it. And who is Art to her if he doesn’t play tennis, since for her he is nothing more than a racket and a dick.
• Tashi calls Patrick. She leaves Art and their daughter at the hotel to sleep and, unseen, reaches Patrick during a storm. Tashi asks Patrick to lose the next day’s match to restore Art’s confidence. Patrick refuses, and they argue. Patrick cannot accept that she won’t admit to herself that she came there to sleep with him. She claims there’s nothing about him she likes, and he replies that there is one thing: she likes that he’s a piece of shit just like her, and because of that, he can see what kind of person she truly is. After sex, Patrick says: “I miss watching you play, Tashi. You were so beautiful.”

The relationship between Tashi and Art is complex and layered, characterized by love, ambition, and control.
Tashi and Art have not only a romantic relationship but also a professional dynamic. After Tashi is forced to end her tennis career due to injury, she becomes Art’s coach, shaping his career and turning him into a champion. This creates an unbalanced relationship: Tashi is the strategic mind, while Art is the executor, fostering a certain emotional and athletic dependence.

Art deeply loves Tashi and constantly seeks to prove himself worthy of her, both as a man and as a player. However, his identity is partly defined by his role as Tashi’s “project,” which makes him insecure. It’s unclear whether she married him out of love or from a need to maintain control over someone after ending her own competitive career.

While Art represents stability and dedication, Tashi is driven by a desire to win at all costs. This imbalance becomes evident when Patrick reappears in their lives, reigniting the wild and competitive side of both. Art has always been “number two” compared to Patrick, and this dynamic carries into his relationship with Tashi: he adores her, but she always seems to have control over him.

Their marriage is not only about love but also a continuous game of strategy and manipulation. Art seeks Tashi’s respect and affection but knows Patrick has always been his true rival, both on the tennis court and in life.
The scene that best reflects these dynamics is in the hotel room when Art asks Tashi to tell him it doesn’t matter if he wins or loses against Patrick, and she responds that if he loses, she will leave him. She says this to motivate him, as a coach would, but he is asking for affection, the kind he would ask from a wife. When Tashi returns to the hotel after being with Patrick, she finds Art lying in bed next to their daughter, the only one who has been able to give him affection.

In conclusion, Art is the balancing point: he prevents Patrick from self-destructing by drowning in his desire to realize his talent, and he allows Tashi to aspire to reach what she could not: the Career Grand Slam.

The film does not feature significant character arcs because it represents desire through tennis, and desire is an inexhaustible well of energy that can never be fully satisfied.