Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #63844 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-12-28
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Colour, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 98 minutes

Customer Reviews

A enjoyable romantic comedy
I am not a fan of tennis, but I thoroughly enjoyed this film and the background. Kirsten Dunst plays a rising tennis star. Paul Bettany is playing a pro that was once ranked number eleven on the tennis circuit and has fallen to 119th at the beginning of the movie. Paul's character has given up on his professional tennis career but has drawn the wild card spot at Wimbledon.

Our two stars have great chemistry on film and it flows through to the characters. And of course Wimbledon is a co-star of this film. Besides the romantic comedy this movie is supposed to be, it also does a wonderful job of showing the inner workings of Pro Tennis. The tennis through out this movie looks real. The director has succeeded in making the actors look like great players. And the stress and determination it takes to play the game at this level.

This movie is actually two movies combined into one. A tennis film and a witty romantic comedy that is about chasing your dreams. And shows that if you are going to try and succeed at something, in order to do your best you must do so with all your heart. It is worth watching.

Paul Bettany gets his one chance to play a leading man
Paul Bettany has been carving out a rather impressive career as a supporting player in recent movies. He was the scene stealing Geoffrey Chaucer in "A Knight's Tale," part of a strong ensemble cast in "Dogville," and has twice played a strong second fiddle to Russell Crowe in first "A Dangerous Mind" and then "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World." Clearly, he is not going to be a leading man, which is one of the reasons it is nice to see him essay such a part in a movie like "Wimbledon." The actor will not receive many such opportunities, but this story provides him with the perfect opportunity.

Bettany is Peter Colt, a British tennis player who has fallen to 119th in the world, having once been 11th, and who has decided that this Wimbledon fortnight is to be his last. Usually the phrase would be "win or lose," but Peter has never won a tournament let alone a Grand Slam event like Wimbledon, so losing is all he has ever known. He tries to announce his planned retirement, but the press is distracted and so it seems that the only one who knows this is Peter's last hurrah is Peter himself. But when he shows up at the hotel for the tournament he ends up being given the key to the room of Lizzie Bradbury (Kirsten Dunst), the rising infant terrible of American tennis. If seeing her in the shower is not enough to get Peter interested, she manages to run into him again.

Neither Peter or Lizzie is sure about what is going on, although she certainly expresses more confidence in the relationship, which makes sense because she has more sense in her tennis game as well. But Peter finds that he has feelings for Lizzie, and he also becomes aware that he is winning tennis matches he should not be winning. Of course, her father (Sam O'Neill) thinks Peter is distracting Lizzie from the task at hand, and so besides his matches and her matches there is daddy dearest to deal with as well. But as Peter's confidence in his tennis game increases, cracks start to appear in Lizzie's, and it is clear that for both of them what is happening off the tennis court is affecting what is happening on the grass of Wimbledon.

Those familiar with tennis might think that this particular story is based on the "Love Bird Double" pulled off by Jimmy Connors and Chris Evert when they were dating back in the 1970s, or even the romance between Evert and John Lloyd, the British player that she actually ended up marrying, but if anything this story is more in keeping with what Connors did at the U.S. Open in 1991 when he was ranked #174 in the world and made it to the semi-finals. Of course there is a little bit of all of these things in this story, and all that is really important is that what Colt does is not so far fetched given what we have seen happen on tennis courts in our life time.

"Wimbledon" is supposed to be a romantic comedy, but the best parts of this 2004 film from director Richard Loncraine are when Colt is on the court playing tennis. More specifically, it is when Colt is thinking about playing tennis, as the script by Adam Brooks, Jennifer Flackett, and Mark Levin gives him lots of opportunities to pysch himself up (and sometimes out) as he gets ready for the next point. It is from listening to these internal monologues that we get a sense of how Colt is on the edge, relying on brains, sheer well, and the good thoughts of people like his favorite ball boy (Jonathan Timmins) to make it through the next key point and then do it all over again.

A lot of this movie is predictable, but that is a common complaint about sports films, whether you are talking true stories like "Seabiscuit" or making them up as was the case with "The Natural." Bettany's performance makes this one work because we get a sense for how much of a physical and mental effort it is for him to play in this tournament. Yes, the tennis ball is computer generated, but the drama of sports is always the human element more than what happens with the ball. That is why the big question in "Wimbeldon" is not whether Peter Colt will get the girl, but whether he will win the tournament.

An Emmotional Moment In History
This is probably one of the most emmotional tennis videos you are ever likely to see. As most of the living wimbledon champions come together to celebrate the millenium championships. Each of the players is introduced by BBC commentator John Barratt and is made very welcome by the crwod. The event was held on the middle saturday of the millenium championships and if you mist it the first time then it is deffinately worth seeing now. It brings high emmotion when players like Borg, McEnroe, Navratilova and Laver get a fantastic applause from the crowd on centre court. Its not just the past players its the present also with davenport and Aggasi making appearances.
This is a truly fantastic and emmotional event that can live fresh in your memory forever with this video!