Year:
2004
Studio:
Working Title Films/Studio Canal
Feature:
3/5
DVD:
3/5
I was expecting a romantic comedy set at Wimbledon. What this movie is
is one man's journey through Wimbledon with a bit of a romantic comedy
thrown in. Brit Peter Colt (Paul Bettany) is on his way down. Once
ranked 11th, he comes to his last Wimbledon ranked 119th.
He meets up and comer American tennis prodigy Lizzie Bradbury (Kirsten
Dunst). What starts out as a fling turns out to be something more
serious. It's a relationship that bouyous Peter and inspires him to
win. Unfortunately it's a relationship that distracts Lizzie and causes
her to lose.
Lizzie is returning home defeated, thinking that Peter used her. Peter
doesn't want to let her go but he thinks it's his fault and maybe he's
not good for her. Meanwhile he's making a remarkable run through
Wimbledon and reaches the finals with a bad back and playing against
phenom Jake Hammond (Austin Nichols).
Really this movie focuses more on Peter's games through Wimbledon as
much as it focuses on the early romance. You get to hear Peter think
about his game which is quite interesting. Sort of like Kevin Costner's
For Love of the Game. I think the audience gets a better feeling for
what it's like to play tennis professionally.
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The DVD has about 15-minutes of
featurettes. There is also a good audio commentary track with Paul
Bettany and director Richard Loncraine. Overall, although I was
expecting a better romantic comedy, it was a still an entertaining
movie because of the sports motiff.
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