REVIEW - VENUS AND SERENA

A light but absorbing documentary, although its subjects' story is inherently absorbing. You might think that two directors would make twice as good a film as one, but Maiken Baird and Michelle Major's skin-deep approach stymies their film from achieving anything as penetrating as one might hope. It doesn't matter how many directors you have, if none of them are brave enough to go that extra furlong, you might as well just go on Wikipedia. At one point, after asking a question of one of the Williams' sisters that is objectively reasonable but personally a little (and only a little) troubling, the issue is brushed past entirely. What we come to deduce for ourselves is that this is one big, unhappy family with one big, happy facade, and the most disappointing aspect of this film is that is barely even tries to get beneath that facade. And yet it is most entertaining, as the basic elements of the Williams' story, at any and all stages documented herein, are terrifically engrossing. Whether we're being enlightened on details of their youth or their characters (mostly via interview, as many of the filmed reality sections come off quite cagey), or being reminded of their extraordinary careers, there's nothing boring about Venus and Serena as a film. The later stages narrow in considerably on Serena, who only becomes a less likeable figure as the film progresses. Some celebrities are featured to camera, including Anna Wintour, who has as little to do with the topics at hand as she has interesting things to say about them, and the Williams extended family members provide most of the dramatic meat, knowingly or not. An even better documentary is just waiting to be made about the sisters' parents, Oracene Price and Richard Williams, and his new wife Lakeisha, who you can probably already picture in your mind's eye. Clue: her name's Lakeisha.