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Wimbledon
Directed by Richard Loncraine. Story: Two tennis players meet and fall in love whilst competing at Wimbledon. Running Time: 1hr 38 minutes. Certificate 12A.
Wimbledon is just like Notting Hill and Love Actually. There you go, you can stop reading now. That's five minutes of your life I've saved. No need to thank me, you'd do the same for me.
The rest of us are kept amused by the witty script and the sheer Britishness of it. The stars spend time off in Brighton, Danny Baker and Chris Moyles are on the radio, Dermot Murnaghan is on the TV, Bernard Hill and Eleanor Bron are very Home Counties as the parents and of course there's Wimbledon itself, though strangely there's no mention of the day and a half it takes to get in after queueing from Norwich. The tennis scenes themselves are very convincing and most fans of this genre will not even pause to wonder how they managed to get actors to play like the professionals. However watch the ball during the action sequences and it doesn't move quite right - it's at that moment that it becomes clear. I reckon the ball wasn't actually there while they were filming the shots. The actors must have learned the rallies and performed them like a dance routine, then the ball must have been added by the touch-up guys later on. It's clever and it works well.
Wimbledon then, does exactly what it says on the tin. Put your hands on the shoulders of the person in front and let them conga you through the next 98 minutes - you know where you're going and you know it never gets any more taxing than the odd kick, but it's still good fun if you're in the mood for it. It's trashy, obvious, middle-class nonsense, but the formula is honed to such a degree that it comes together to create a watchable, comfortable, heartwarming whole. The sense of familiarity makes it feel like a cup of cocoa on a cold night, curled up on a deep pile rug with a roaring fire in the hearth. Welcome back, old friend. I enjoyed this film: I think the average moviegoer will enjoy it: Testosterone Satisfaction Rating: Kirsten Dunst seen blurrily through a frosted shower door, one appropriate use of the the f-word, it's all very PG really. To enjoy this film you should be: in brain-off mode.
To pre-order Wimbledon for its release on 7th February 2005, use the link below: |
Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Paul Bettany, Sam Neill, Bernard Hill, Jon Favreau.
What, you want to know more? Well if you insist. Kirsten Dunst stars as a bright young tennis
player expected to win Wimbledon for the first time, Paul Bettany is the 31-year old at the end of his career,
expected to end his life in tennis by going out in the first round and becoming tennis director at a hoity-toity
tennis club, working for Robert Lindsay (from My Family) and teaching randy rich housewives, among them Celia Imrie
from Calendar Girls. Sam Neill (Jurassic Park) is Kirsten's trainer/father. Take a stab
at the entire story and you will be spot on - Wimbledon is as predictable as movies ever get. From the first
serve until the final point, the plot developments are telegraphed carefully to avoid any possible surprises.
Wimbledon is for those people who read TV magazines to find out what's going to happen in their favourite
soap before it happens on screen.
Paul Bettany delivers a sparkling performance as the self-doubting underdog, showing great skill
and breadth, building impressively on his previous appearances as Chaucer in A Knight's Tale and as the
naturalist in Master and Commander - I predict a few more leading roles for the lucky husband of Jennifer
Connelly! Strangely, Kirsten Dunst doesn't gel quite so well in this environment. There's nothing wrong with
the performance and I certainly wasn't aware of a lack of chemistry between the leading couple, but nonetheless
there is a certain fish-out-of-water feel to her presence. I think the problem is that as Britons we are brought
up on American films, then when we see a British film with British locations and British stars, it all seems so
much more familiar and real that an American star seems as out of place in the movie as down the Dog and Duck.
