In the same way that Jaws is not about a shark, the much-hyped Challengers is not about tennis. While it may follow a trio of players from their exuberant youths as the next big things to the twilights of their sporting careers, the film is far more a story about love, lust and a shifting power dynamic. And it is all the better for this.

Director Luca Guadagnino is no stranger to erotically-charged romance, with previous works including Bones and All, Call Me By Your Name, and A Bigger Splash, and Challengers has a great deal of fun digging into its trio’s romantic endeavours. It is, perhaps, a detraction that early scenes that seem to be leading in a certain direction are for naut. There’s been a degree of mis-selling of Challengers but the film it actually is is no less compelling.

This is thanks to a marriage of performers and technical prowess the film exhibits. Challengers’ central triptych are all exemplary here, and the film gives individual moments over to Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor. It is a stretch to believe, particularly with Faist and Zendaya, that these actors are their washed out 30s selves. But the performers gallantly work in shifts to their physical performances to show this. The film is at its most fun, and best, when it focuses on the characters’ more youthful exploits. But as a showcase for performers on the cusp of, and in the case of Zendaya - in the midst of, acting greatness, Challengers can’t be faulted.

Where the film truly shines though is in its exhilarating tennis sequences. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have for several decades now been synonymous with brilliance for their film scores, but the propulsive, pounding and all consuming music that accompanies Challengers’ key beats may be their best score yet, matching the remarkable work the pair did on The Social Network. Cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom marries a crisp cleanliness with a remarkable momentum during the frantic moments. The final scenes are a cavalcade of all the tricks in the book, artificially upping the stakes and drawing us further and further into the narrative. Finally the glue that holds all these components together is Marco Costa, who edits the film together with a clarity that keeps audiences in tune with both the tennis matches and the time scrambled narrative.

If the stakes of Challengers are rather on the low end of proceedings, Guadagnino and co. do a wonderful job of amping up the tension. Challengers is a stylish, vigorous work with three outstanding performances and a score for the ages.