Wimbledon

WIMBLEDON

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 2 out of 5

Because of: foul language, sexual content

Rated:

A common dream exists among athletes. They all want to win. But it's not always about winning. Sometimes it's about the game, and sometimes it's just about beating the person across the field, track, or net. Wimbledon is the story of an underdog who manages to become top dog, but not without heartache, romance, and stress.

Thirty-five years old and on the verge of going pro and quitting the competitive circuit due to his placement at "113th in the world," Peter Colt (Paul Bettany) seems to be going nowhere fast. Teaching lecherous, bored rich ladies how to improve their game doesn't much appeal to him, but it's that or serving hamburgers, a bona-fide "has-been." One last time, he is determined to make it through Wimbledon so that he can announce his retirement in style. Not even his family thinks he's going to win. In fact, his brother Carl (James McAvoy) bets against him in every match, thinking it's a sure thing. But packing the back ointment and his trusty racket, Peter goes into the big leagues... and discovers that the latest dynamo on the court is Lizzie Bradbury (Kirsten Dunst). Focused and talented, she's about to go places -- and her father (Sam Neil) will let no one stand in her way.

Literally stumbling into her hotel room, a major oops turns into an invitation for dinner and from there it turns into a secret relationship, complete with sneaking in and out in the middle of the night and running from the press. The longer the romance goes, the better Peter's game becomes... but the worse Lizzie's begins to slide. Wimbledon is an interesting movie for its ability to interest the audience in tennis. I have never watched a match in my life, but thought it looked like fun and it might prompt me to tune in to the next tournament just to see what it's really like. The chemistry between the leads is fantastic, and they have some truly wonderful co-stars that add to the general hilarity and awkwardness of the film.

Unfortunately, for me the film suffered on one major point -- the fact that the leading characters start off their romance as not even a romance, but a casual sexual relationship to "work out" before hitting the courts. The worst way imaginable to begin a relationship is to sleep with someone, and it makes Peter and Lizzie a little hard to root for at times, since because they don't take it seriously, neither do we. The camera never actually shows them having sex, but it's heavily implied through morning after scenes, dialogue, and passionate kissing beforehand. There's also an abhorrent amount of sexual innuendo, partial nudity, and several instances when intimacy is overheard. (Peter walks in on his brother riding an exercise bike to a porn tape, and thinks it's the tape again when returning later, only to discover he has interrupted his parents.) When Peter walks into Lizzie's room, he sees her in the shower; her naked form is glimpsed through a snowy shower door. While getting ready for a date, Peter tries on different pairs of underwear and adjusts them in the mirror; part of his bare backside is glimpsed.

Lizzie makes an obscene gesture after a bad call is made on her match. There's also quite a lot of foul language, including British profanities (and many American ones -- s**t being frequently among them, along with a possible f-word, and two uses of GD). The content distracted me to an extent from the heart of the film, which could have been much sweeter without all the focus on the mistaken belief that sex lies at the center of each successful relationship. It's not. It should come much later. Even said, the ending is very sweet and nothing will quite get your heart racing like the final match at Wimbledon.