R | 1h 28m | Documentary, Biography, Sports | 2024
The term “GOAT” (Greatest of All Time) gets bandied about far more than it should, especially in professional sports. If taken literally, there should be only one GOAT per sport, period.
If based solely on lifetime tournaments won, it is possible that Roger Federer could be considered the GOAT for tennis. Between 1998 and 2022, Mr. Federer won 103 singles titles (including 20 major, or Grand Slam events) and racked up a record 8 Wimbledon championships, and 6 year-end championships. He was also ranked number one in the world for 310 weeks, of which 237 were consecutive.
Lackluster
As the title indicates, “Final Days” concentrates mostly on the last 12 days of Mr. Federer’s professional career, and the movie is (to be kind) just average. It’s surprisingly lackluster, conspicuously self-absorbed, and a textbook vanity project.It starts with Mr. Federer preparing a recorded announcement of his retirement in 2022. The plan is to release the recording a few days later in the hopes of possibly causing a huge wave of admiring fans, or something like that. This is the first of many instances in the film where Mr. Federer’s gargantuan ego comes to the fore. He’s an athlete hanging up his spurs, not a doctor revealing the cure for cancer.
The Laver Cup
The 12 days in the title is the time spent leading up to his final professional tournament: the Laver Cup. Started in 2017 as the tennis equivalent of golf’s Ryder Cup, the Laver Cup (named in honor of Australian hall-of-famer Rod Laver) is an annual men’s doubles elimination tournament pitting members of “Team Europe” (coached by Bjorn Borg) and “Team World” (coached by John McEnroe). While there is a certain degree of prestige associated with the event, many tennis fans consider it to be little more than a glorified exhibition event.
Nadal and Djokovic
Also featured predominantly in “Final Days” are Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, Mr. Federer’s two principal competitors for the majority of his career. Fierce rivals on the court, the men, at least in the movie, are presented as cordial and friendly with each other when off the clock.
For reasons that make complete sense, the career titles and records of both Mr. Djokovic and Mr. Nadal are never mentioned as they eclipse those of Mr. Federer. The most telling of these are career single Grand Slams. Mr. Djokovic has the most with 24, Mr. Nadal in second with 22, and Mr. Federer in third place with 20. As the top two title holders are still active, their totals could easily increase, and each could also be considered the tennis GOAT.
It would be great if tennis organizations, game experts, and statisticians got together and worked on creating an aggregate of wins and titles—either do this to figure out the GOAT issue for good or cease using the acronym entirely.
It’s somewhat disheartening that Mr. Federer felt the need to participate in a production so lacking in depth. The film ends up to be flat-out boring with a dollop of self-aggrandizement. There’s far too much screen time spent on non-sports content; this is not great for what is being marketed as a sports documentary. To add insult to injury, the filmmakers chose to include multiple unneeded F-bombs, thus earning the movie an “R” rating, and making it unsuitable for family viewing.
Had the movie focused on the many highlights of Mr. Federer’s playing career and offered up commentary and praise from his rivals, tennis commentators, and anyone else but him, “Final Days” could have been far more impressive and less of a plodding, dramatically inert, and overlong infomercial.
