Wimbledon (2004)

Wimbledon is a romantic comedy that centers on a the romance between a washed-up tennis professional,Peter Colt and an up-and-coming tennis star,Lizzie Bradbury that occurred during the Wimbledon Championships.It features Paul Bettany and Kirsten Dunst.The story of the film follows plight of Peter Colt,who is on wildcard participant at Wimbledon considering.At age 31,he intends to retire after the tournament and has decided to play a decent tennis match in it.Then he accidentally meets the up-and-coming Lizzie Bradbury after a mistake in the room given to him by a receptionist on the hotel he is staying.After they get to know each other after a series of events,they find each other attractive and fell for each other.This led to Peter improving his self-confidence and getting inspired playing at Wimbledon as he managed to win many matches and was able to finish at the tournament beyond many to fans' expectations.I found the film overall bland and boring. Added to that,both Bettany and Dunst aren't really believable as a couple despite the fact that both had good performances.What's even worse is the fact that the tennis action is far from authentic especially when one is familiar with the sport.Everyone watching this pretty much knew what is going to happen at the end of the film and how Peter is going to perform in his last tournament which made it contrived and predictable.Overall,the presence of the lead stars and their acting skills save this film especially when it lacks strong features and make it functional for people who love films of these genre.

The tennis matches were well faked in this flick, with glimpses into the mind of the lead player (Paul Bettany) that we were not granted for his love-match (Kirsten Dunst), who is mainly presented on her back in bed. As usual, her role is seriously underwritten: she has no friend (as Bettany's character does), she has no car, and misbehaves during the competition by drinking, eating and shagging. Why he is able to win in his early 30s in spite of this behaviour, while she loses in her mid-20s is incomprehensible. Anyway, they both get out of tennis "it's only a game", get married and have two children in a highly traditional manner that probably made many female movie-goers vomit into their popcorn. Yes, it's a highly traditional movie, all about a male winning and a female worshipping him and having his babies, but it's all right because it's only entertainment, right? Seven for entertainment value. BTW, Wimbledon is the All-England Tennis and Croquet Club --- the croquet got well neglected in this particular picture.

Three words say it all: British romantic comedy. If the genre is not your cup of tea, you won't like this flick either. But if you loved other British romantic comedies like "Love Actually", "Notting Hill", "Four Weddings and a Funeral", "About a Boy", and so on, then you'll probably like "Wimbledon" too, even if the storyline is simple and the characters are not as deep as they could be. Just don't take it too seriously, and suspend your belief about Wimbledon players not sleeping the night before an important match because they play Romeo and Juliet, and you'll fully enjoy the movie: entertaining, funny, romantic, British. The storyline is simple yet effective. Cute but usually unlucky British tennis guy meets cheeky yet romantic American tennis golden girl, and gets lucky. Not only does he have sex before each match, but he even wins the matches. After some (romantic) troubles and some (tennis) adventures, our hero incredibly wins Wimbledon, she doesn't, but she is going to in the future. And they'll live happily ever after. Of course! If you like tennis, the movie has a plus side. You'll root for the hero when he plays the match of his life. (Spoiler alert!) Of course our man is going to win, because he's been unlucky in his tennis career, because he is British (and this is a British film), because his opponent is American (and this is a British film, again) who acts like a spoiled child, and -most of all- because the guy is in love, and in romantic comedies Love Wins All! Paul Bettany and Kirsten Dunst are not Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman, they are not Boris Becker and Steffi Graf either, but they are cute and a good choice for the parts. If you love London, you'll enjoy the locations too. My vote is 7.5 out of 10.

Wimbledon is one of those movies that leaves you wanting more of something, I don't know what though.The scenes at the famous Wimbledon club are absolutely beautiful, Paul Bettany did a superb job in looking like a real tennis pro. The games looked real and engaging, good tennis overall, but....What was missing? Was it maybe the fact that the girl was not a nice person and showed her real personality on court being nasty, crude and spoiled brat? I couldn't help but wonder if a real tennis player like her would even give a second glance to a player like him, a has been!It's a not bad film really, it was obviously made with the uttermost care and it succeed to a point but not into the realms of a great film, and before long it will be forgotten, unfortunately.Watch it if you have no better options, it's at least entertaining, and non-demanding.