Wimbledon

Without a doubt, Working Title Films has cornered the market on British romantic films. Unfortunately, at least half these films do not live up to early standards (e.g., Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones' Diary, Elizabeth) and become dull echoes (e.g., Love Actually, Notting Hill). They've discovered their niche, and are now at the stage whereby they figure they don't need to work too hard to attract their audience. They got me to go! Even with middling reviews and the inclusion of a middling actress, Kirsten Dunst (the best thing going for her is that she's as tiny as actresses are supposed to be nowadays). Paul Bettany struggles to do something, anything, with his role, a hopeless task when he's given nothing to work with. It's the basic romance tale, with the addition of tennis, which is all anyone ever talks about when it comes to this film -- how intensely the actors trained to look like real tennis players (although those balls must be digitally included). If you like tennis, go ahead. That part's well done. (And one of the funnier things to notice is how hushed the movie-going audience gets when the tennis audience in the film is silent for the next play.) The rest of us can give it a miss. If only because the funny lines are sparse, the chemistry between the two stars is nil, and the obviousness of the ending is only for the very young and those who never, ever want their films to end with the smallest deviation from the standard plot.

year: 2004
length: 98 min.
rating: 2.0
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0360201/combined