Twelve Final Days: As always, Roger elevates, Roger rescues
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India, July 16 -- In the midst of a multi-nation, multi-continent feast of cricket and football, there arrives Prime Video's Federer: Twelve Final Days. About the days leading to the last competitive match of Roger Federer, tennis legend and global superstar. The title of the Asif Kapadia-Joe Sabia-directed documentary shouts promotional tribute/hagiographic branding. Like the cringy The Decision, an overhyped, over-heated 2010 ESPN TV special about Lebron James' move from Cleveland Cavaliers to Miami Heat. There was a genuine fear that Twelve Final Days (TFD) too would belong to those familiar OTT sportsdocu staples which advertise as fly-on-wall exposes but are mostly anodyne wallpaper.But, as always, Roger elevates and Roger rescues. In the midst of TFD's familiar sports doc terrain - interviews, tributes, voice overs, "epic music/propulsive music playing" - there is a generous sparkling of gems. Like an exchange between Federer and Bjorn Borg, side by side in the Laver Cup locker room. So genuinely goofy and goofily genuine that it refits the entire hoo-ha around the subject-storyline onto human scale. We see self-awareness and self-deprecation, a most elite athlete in his regular guy skin. (Not spoiling it here by repeating what was said).It is such snatches that shimmer through the film's 100 minutes and give it heft and effervescence. What is reinforced is not Federer's image or brand value. But the hard to fathom fact that so much of what appears impossible around modern sporting celebrity is, with Federer, the real deal. That the most loved athlete worldwide from an individual sport - Tiger Woods' halo is busted and Usain Bolt didn't compete so relentlessly for years - is eventually all those things that he appears to be.Through TFD, as Federer's final match draws near, we witness the tug of war between Federer and his emotions.
He is, quite honestly, Mr Waterworks. It's a marvel how he kept it together on court for 24 years. En route to one of many Laver Cup events, Federer says, "So far I've been solid", and the thought itself has led to a tremor at the end of his voice. His farewell match - in partnership with Rafael Nadal of Team Europe against the Team World players Jack Sock and Frances Tiafoe - ended in defeat and a flood of tears visible on TV, shared on social media.But the magic, not just of the Federer persona but his entire era, is not evident from Federer crying or hugging his family and contemporaries, but in the reactions of those competitors and rivals. Courtside after the match, an emotional Federer whispers something to Novak Djokovic "that were very personal". Tennis' hard man with more Grand Slam men's singles titles that anyone else, turns away and breaks down. The camera returns to the locker room and around a corner we find Nadal, his face buried in a towel, still in tears.In no professional sport, individual or team, is this common. Federer had talked about feeling his sport's mystic bond with rivals, "We almost touch each other through the tennis ball. You can feel the force of your opponent with its spin or the power. How much he grunts on the shot, that's a message as well." It is clear that a clutch of those on the other side of his net felt it too.As a piece of film, Twelve Final Days seems a balancing of what Federer's management machine were looking to put out and Kapadia's brilliance as a documentary maker. The promotional material on Prime says TFD was "originally a home video never intended for public viewing". Cough, cough. Okay, whatever. Kapadia is easily the world's best-known biodoc guy. Whose films Senna (2010), Diego Maradona (2019) and Amy (2015) on the short, troubled life of singer Amy Winehouse, captured the visceral intermangling (not mingling) of athletic/creative genius, individuality and the circus of celebrity. So, naturally only the best for Roger (even if only for home video.)TFD has many delightful slices of Federer as seen through Kapadia's eyes. Unseen footage from a 24-year career captures the passage of time. We see Federer stretching, enter training courts, going on the long definite walk into countless matches from a teenager to a 40-year-old on dodgy knees. There's the commentator referring to the young 'Lederer' winning the 1998 junior Wimbledon title, Federer socking a boxing dummy on his way out after his final gym session, and always talking openly.
About his most celebrated rivals and how after his first defeat to Nadal, his "first instinct" was "I don't wanna have this guy here. I like being at the top alone."About not giving Djokovic "as much as he deserved" in attention and respect early on before saluting the "deep focus" which made him, "an unbelievable monster of a player". Eventually like all great champions, Federer had to dig "deeper and deeper into myself" to seek and find answers and become the leader of the greatest single generation of tennis legends for the ages.There is a moment in the film recounting his 3-6, 6-7, 0-6 Wimbledon 2021 quarter final defeat to Hubert Hurkacz. Federer calls it "one of the worst moments of my career". We then see him step onto the elevated ramp between the Centre Court and the Millenium Building and stop. Take off his mask, slow down his walk and turn to face the mass of screaming fans at ground level.In the 15 seconds across the ramp, Federer waves, bobs his head, acknowledges unknown people he may never meet in person. He has put his personal anguish on hold and reached out to the fans. It is not meant to feed his ego. It is the acceptance of a responsibility he wants to take on. He said he spoke extensively about his retirement because, "I just wanted to let the fans know I won't be a ghost." He spoke about Borg not returning to Wimbledon for 25 years, which while a totally acceptable individual decision, Federer said "in a way hurts every tennis fan. But I don't think I'll be that guy. You'll see me again, not just never again."Twelve Final Days is very much a clear-eyed, attention/relevancy-seeking fuel injection for the Federer fame machine. Yet, like was said earlier, Roger elevates and Roger rescues. And who on earth would mind being rescued by Roger?
