Pleasant comedy gets a romantic score of love-love

Friday, September 17, 2004

By WILLIAM ARNOLD
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER MOVIE CRITIC

He is Peter Colt (Paul Bettany), a self-effacing British tennis player who was once ranked 11th in the world but now, well in his 30s, has slipped to 119th and is about to retire from the game to take on a steady gig as the pro of a posh London tennis club.

MOVIE REVIEW

WIMBLEDON

DIRECTOR: Richard Loncraine

CAST: Kirsten Dunst, Paul Bettany, Sam Neill

RUNNING TIME: 100 minutes

RATING: PG-13 for language, sexuality and partial nudity

WHERE: Bella Bottega 11, Cinema 17, Crossroads 8, East Valley 13, Everett 9, Factoria, Galaxy Tacoma 6, Galleria 11, Gateway 8, Grand Cinemas, Issaquah 9, Kirkland Parkplace 6, Longston Place 14, Majestic Bay, Marysville Cinema 14, Meridian 16, Monroe 12, Mountlake 9, Oak Tree, Parkway Plaza 12, Woodinville 12

GRADE: C+

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She is Lizzy Bradbury (Kirsten Dunst), a father-dominated American rising star of the international tennis set who is barely in her 20s, already has a reputation as a spoiled bad girl and is just about to play her first Wimbledon tournament.

In the pleasant but predictable and underwhelming romantic comedy/sports movie, "Wimbledon," these two opposites from across the Atlantic meet cute when he accidentally stumbles into her suite at the Dorchester Hotel while she's taking a shower.

The movie is about the way the instant romance that's created by this rude meeting helps her to shed her dependence on Daddy (Sam Neill), and transforms Peter from a doubting has-been to England's hope for one of its rare Wimbledon victories.

The director is Richard Loncraine, whose background is in British art film ("Richard III," "Brimstone & Treacle"), and he's able to give the film a lot of pleasant English atmosphere and a different, often expressionistic, look to the competition scenes.

In his first starring role in a big Hollywood movie, Bettany is much more appealing than he's been in any of his previous supporting work ("A Knight's Tale," "Master and Commander"), and his stream-of-consciousness narration carries the movie nicely.

But, like most sports movies, it's a formula job all the way, it never tells us anything about the phenomenon of Wimbledon and it fails to generate sparks as a romance. (Maybe there's something to the old adage about never casting a love story with two blond stars.)

Surprisingly, the weak link is Dunst, who's previously been the delight of all her movies. Her character here is very annoying, and she's been so overexposed lately that her unique charm is beginning to seem mannered and forced, almost to the point of self-caricature.