Wimbledon (2004)

Directed by Richard Loncraine. Starring Paul Bettany, Kirsten Dunst, Sam Neill, James McAvoy, Eleanor Bron, Bernard Hill, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Jon Favreau, Austin Nichols, Celia Imrie. [PG-13]

Aging tennis pro Bettany is ranked outside the top 100 and set to retire after playing his twelfth Wimbledon tournament, but when he has a “meet cute” with rising star Dunst and becomes involved with her, he finds his game improving as he keeps going deeper into the competition. Romance in the sports arena is innocuous, formulaic fluff; it goes down easy, but the missed opportunities to target or tweak the various facets of the world of tennis aren’t so easily shrugged off. The leads are amiable, though there’s too little heat between them considering the sudden, ardent nature of their coupling; they’re supported by a grab-bag of stereotypes (the strict father-manager, the cheeky sibling, the arrogant jerk of an ex-boyfriend who, of course, winds up being Bettany’s final opponent, etc.). The tennis action is hardly groundbreaking, but lively enough to hold interest. Several real-life tennis stars make appearances as themselves or as fictional competitors.

57/100