Yesterday was Wimbledon.
And it was alright.
The film is based on a British tennis player, Peter Colt (played by the talented Paul Bettany) who will be playing his last ever tournament in Wimbledon. At 119th ranking, he was a wild card entry and is favourite to lose in the first round. He would then retire and start a new life as a director.
That is until he met young fresh and nude Lizzie Bradbury (Kirsten Dunst). The two unnaturally falls in love in a record time after only having eaten fish and chips (ah...the staple of British diet). It all bears resemblance to the other chick flick that is Notting Hill (where an American actress fell in love with a bumbling British book store owner in trendy Notting Hill).
Apart from outrageous fake tennis, the movie did have some highlights. First up was John McEnroe, the real life American former World champion who was commenting in almost every match. I am a keen Wimbledon fan and I have never heard McEnroe commented on the BBC's Wimbledon matches before. As far as I was concern he was a pundit. But still its nice having him around since he was the original tennis 'bad ass'.
Brighton was the next highlight. (I saw part of the filming last September when they were there) I love Brighton and often visit the seaside town. It is probably the best town in the South East outside London in my opinion. Hopefully this would raise Brighton's profile as an international recognisable town.
Bernald Hill as always was excellent - this time as Peter's mad father, Edward.
I am glad they got Paul Bettany to play the British guy. They actually intended Hugh Grant to play the guy. Now I don't hate Hugh Grant or anything but his acting is beginning to bore me to death with his posh accent. Come on man, can't you do a London accent?
There are problems with the movie itself and some technical one too. I frequently see the IBM serve board record only slightly above 100mph. Personally that is a bit too slow for professional tennis. I am sure speeds of 150mph has been recorded by such fine real life tennis professionals such as Andy Roddick and Roger Federer.
Kirsten Dunst plays an unbelievable tempered woman and it was lucky she could pull it off. In my opinion they should have got a more athletic actress to play the romantic lead - but hey they could have done worst. They actually wanted Reese Whiterspoon!
The ending was typical Notting Hill. They fall in love get married and have kids. Unlike Notting Hill which had the American moving to the fine life of London here we have the Colts moving to urban America (New York? Los Angeles?). Very disappointing... What is wrong with Brighton?
Paul Bettany will have an amazing career after this movie and I do hope he will overtake Hugh Grant since he is more talented. However I also wish that he would not be typecast into anymore romantic comedy leads. He has already proved that he can play Hollywood in The Beautiful Mind as the imaginary friend of Russell Crowe.
Overall I give Wimbledon a 5.5/10.
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