Federer: Twelve Final Days

The tone of this film mirrors Roger Federer as a player and human being: elegant, classy, detached and cool.

Like its subject, the film is not particularly revolutionary or groundbreaking in its approach. But again, like its subject, it is a work of unmistakable quality and class.

Federer was unique at being: mild. It’s why so many crying dads love him. On screen this doesn’t play so well.

If you're interested in the sport and in him, he is clearly a remarkable and admirable sportsman, then this is a very loving tribute. It isn't anything other than that.

With the international press and his management team nearly always on the sidelines, there’s little privacy to get personal. One of the more vulnerable moments the film manages to capture comes when Federer wears the wrong dress shirt to a photo call.

Less a career overview than a lengthy valediction, “Twelve Final Days” considers what is meant when a professional athlete has to stare into the post-career abyss. Mr. Federer seems more likely than most not to go blind.

Twelve Final Days won't appeal to audiences unfamiliar with tennis. But those who are familiar with the sport are also likely to be fans of Federer's.

This is probably going to mean a lot to anyone who watched and followed Federer’s entire career, but nothing jumped off the screen for me.

Those looking for a Lleyton Hewitt-to-Hubert Hurkacz lookback at the Swiss master’s lows and many highs are going to be sorely disappointed, the small snatches of archival footage mainly there to compare and contrast early and late-career Federer.

If you’re a big Federer fan, Federer: Twelve Final Days is surely going to get you sentimental and maybe even entertain you, but it’s not going to give the long-awaited window into the man’s soul that you might’ve hoped for.