Asif Kapadia co-directs backstage access to a tennis great’s final games that includes much crying but too few questions
The tears of Roger Federer, along with the tears of Rafael Nadal and even the tears of Novak Djokovic, are what finally give some point to what is otherwise a pretty bland, officially sanctioned corporate promo for the Federer brand. This documentary for Amazon Prime – co-directed by Asif Kapadia and video content producer Joe Sabia – has behind-the-scenes access, following the final 12 days in the top-flight tennis career of the legendary champion, from his announcement of retirement in 2022 to his emotional curtain-call appearance at the Laver Cup in London, named after Rod Laver, the starry new Europe-versus-the World team tournament that Federer has done so much to develop.
Federer was bowing out with style like the class act he’s always been and as legends such as Björn Borg, John McEnroe, Andy Murray and Rod Laver himself line up to pay tribute, there is a Niagara of tears. And yes, it is genuinely sad. But compare it to Asif Kapadia’s other films about Ayrton Senna and Diego Maradona – his radical and electrifying mosaics of archive footage, which show passionate lives being played out in public … and frankly this looks disappointing. Of course, Federer is a more demure personality, though even this point is treated rather incuriously. The paradox is that this film’s original footage, in contrast to the vividly repurposed material of the Senna and Maradona studies, weirdly looks less intimate and more guarded. Everything here looks as if it has been approved at the highest level.