Federer: Twelve Final Days – adoring film about the tennis legend

The British director Asif Kapadia has made “dazzling films about Ayrton Senna, Amy Winehouse and Diego Maradona”, said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail. His latest, co-directed by Joe Sabia, follows “the great Roger Federer from the announcement of his retirement in 2022 to his valedictory tennis tournament at the O2 Arena less than a fortnight later”. 

Kapadia’s previous subjects were “tormented or tragic or both”, whereas the Swiss maestro is well-adjusted, with a family – “supportive parents, lovely wife, two sets of twins” – that seems “like a kiss from the gods”. All of which makes him, alas, “an insipid choice for a behind-the-scenes documentary”, which turns in this case into “an 88-minute rhapsody”. It’s enjoyable if you revere Federer, as I do, but it’s still “too adoring by half”.