Last week, Roger Federer gave a graduation address to students at Dartmouth College in the US where he stated “perfection is impossible”.
And yet the speech was near perfect: amusing, natural, from the heart and, at times, emotive. It epitomised the poise he showed on court but also the sense of humour he has in less guarded moments.
It seemed to show a truer version of the Swiss than Federer: Twelve Final Days, the new Amazon film documenting the period spanning from the day of his retirement to his final and emotive farewell at the Laver Cup.
Federer fans will love it, made to feel like they’ve got up close and personal to their idol, and it is a pleasant enough watch.
But it left me feeling like there could have been more as seen so recently in that graduation speech. It also feels exactly like what it is – a home video originally created for the family and then subsequently turned into a documentary, one suspects because his tennis farewell playing on court with big rival and friend Rafael Nadal was so perfect.
The arrival of Nadal halfway into the documentary is a plus. For such great rivals, their friendship is a quirk, and there is a lovely clip of them much younger cracking up together as they try to get through recording a promotional video together.
There is another moment in the changing room after their Laver Cup match had ended and the flood of tears finally stemmed where Federer quipped, “Imagine if we’d won the doubles.” Cue much laughter but also the sense that not enough of Federer’s humour – and he has a wicked one – was exposed to the cameras.
At times, it feels too controlled, perhaps best highlighted by the remarkably white room in their Swiss family home filled with many of his most coveted trophies.
The scenes inside the locker room are some of the most illuminating, Nadal irritated about an on-court rival, and Novak Djokovic – more successful than Federer and Nadal but less adored – occasionally walking around like a rather less well-loved sibling.
Djokovic cries, they all cry and the tears are actually moving to watch, and the timing of the documentary is near perfect. Nadal has recently ruled himself out of Wimbledon as he tries to get his broken body to the Olympic Games, and Djokovic may also be missing on the grass having undergone surgery after the recent French Open.
The snapshots of Federer’s family life, while fleeting, are enjoyable: his twin sons dressed in Arsenal kits pretending to be ball boys at home and a single tear streaming down his wife Mirka’s cheek as they watch his retirement announcement.
And the tributes from the greats are compelling too. John McEnroe calls him, “a Baryshnikov on the tennis court,” Bjorn Borg, “an artist… he could do anything with a tennis racket”.
This is no Senna, co-director Asif Kapadia’s most memorable documentary and yet it still very watchable. Federer breaks down as he asks, “what happens next?” when contemplating his future, and it is clear how much he loves tennis.
Retirement, for him, is akin to grieving; indeed, the documentary is coming out as the changing of the guard officially happens. The end of the big three, big four if you include Andy Murray – the only likely Wimbledon participant this year – is nigh.
You don’t worry about him either. He had a remarkable career and the “perfect journey” as he puts it. This documentary could simply have done with a few more imperfections.
