Another waste of time rom-com

Rating: Null/10 (9 December 2004)

"From the makers of Notting Hill Four Weddings" comes the tag line strapped onto the trailers for this film, but in all honesty, who is that? Maybe the producers? Last time I checked it was not producers that made a film good.
And this is evident here. Richard Curtis, the real creator of aforementioned rom-coms is nowhere to be seen and we are left with a director and two stars who are self proclaimed to have never played or followed tennis before making this movie. I really feel for Pat Cash that had to act as technical expert on this picture.
Frankly, I won't go into the story as its as dry and lifeless as any other waste of time romantic comedy. The writing is witless and the storyline predictable and characters moronic with no depth at all (save a few fleeting moments from the brilliant Bernard Hill).
Being a tennis fan though I wanted to watch this as we are not treated to many films centered on our sport. Luckily, the action on court was well produced (thanking the producers? Ahem) and the film boasted some nice visual effects. It was not plainly obvious that every tennis ball hit was CG. To any tennis fan or fan of Wimbledon it was obvious that the directors and stars of the movie were not tennis fans. Many glaring inconsistencies with Wimbledon... but I guess this could be overlooked as the film is just a romantic comedy. Clearly written for an American audience (American TV station on a UK TV? Come on...) at least we managed to get the film set in Wimbledon rather than the US Open.
There is little good to say about any of the actors save Hill, although Bettany does a good job holding his first leading role. No good writing to work with and an even worse co-star (its like she isn't even trying anymore - just another pay cheque until the next Spider-Man film?) but he is convincing for his part. There were some nice allusions to Hen-Mania which was good and I liked having David Mercer on the commentary early on. It's a shame McEnroe's wooden performance took over later - but again, obviously written for an American audience (I love you really Mac!).
Overall if you are a tennis fan then its probably worth watching for the nice oncourt action. If you are a fan of romantic comedies then you can find better out there. Don't expect the film to hold up to the "Bridget Jones/Notting Hill/Four Weddings" mantle that the advertisers would have you believe and you may waste a couple of hours while waiting for something better. It's light, its... fun, and its predictable. Not great, pretty bad, but there is worse out there.