Patriotic Wish-Fulfilment Fantasy

Rating: 6/10 (11 July 2007)

Tennis has not generally been a popular sport with film-makers. The hero of Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train" may be a top tennis player, but for most of that film he has other matters than sport on his mind, like clearing himself of a murder charge. "Wimbledon" is the first film I can recall in which the game has taken centre stage.
It has been compared to a Richard Curtis film, and certainly has some similarities to his "Notting Hill". Both films are named after districts of London, and Hugh Grant, the star of "Notting Hill", was also originally slated for the lead in "Wimbledon". Both also both feature a shy, nervous, self-deprecating upper-middle-class Englishman who falls in love with a glamorous American superstar. The twist here, of course, is that the superstar in question, Lizzie Bradbury, is not a Hollywood actress but rather a leading professional tennis player. The man who falls for her is another tennis player, Peter Colt. Colt is a journeyman professional, just outside the game's elite. He was once ranked number eleven in the world, but he is now in the twilight of his career and has slipped to 119. He is playing in his last Wimbledon before retirement from the game, and wants to go out in style.
Apart from "Notting Hill", there may also be a real-life precedent for the romance of Lizzie and Peter. A generation ago Chris Evert, a glamorous American superstar of the game, married John Lloyd, a journeyman English professional ranked just outside the game's elite. (If a cinematic biopic of John and Chrissie were ever to be made, Kirsten Dunst and Paul Bettany might not be bad choices for the leading roles). Of course, there are a few differences. Whereas Evert's calm, imperturbable demeanour won her the nickname of "the Ice Maiden", Lizzie is a tempestuous hothead on the lines of John McEnroe. She even gets to repeat one of his lines- "Chalk flew up!". (If Evert and McEnroe really were the inspiration for the character of Lizzie, neither of them seem to have minded- both appear in the film as commentators). Peter is rather older than Lloyd was at the time of his marriage. And, most importantly, he manages to do something which neither Lloyd nor any other Englishman has done since Fred Perry in 1936. He wins Wimbledon.
That last sentence might give a clue as to the true nature of the film. The British have a curious relationship with the game of tennis. Or, to be more accurate, they have a curious relationship with the Wimbledon championships. For a fortnight in late June and early July every year, the BBC devote several hours a day to showing the matches, and the newspapers are full of articles lamenting the fact that Britain has not produced a winner of the men's singles since Perry or of the women's singles since Virginia Wade in 1977. This failure is pronounced a National Disgrace; talented players such as Tim Henman or Greg Rusedski are subjected to unfair criticism or even ridicule for failing to win Wimbledon. For the remaining fifty weeks of the year the fever abates and the great majority of the British public take little interest in the sport; the other major tennis championships are not normally televised to any extent except on specialist satellite channels. The last British player to win a Grand Slam singles title was not in fact Wade but Sue Barker, but because her triumph was achieved at Roland-Garros rather than Wimbledon it does not really count in British eyes.
The film, therefore, is less a comedy or a romantic comedy than a patriotic wish-fulfilment fantasy. The player whom Colt defeats in the final, Jake Hammond, is an obnoxious American who fulfils admirably the British stereotype of the vulgar, loud-mouthed Yankee cut down to size by a quiet but determined Englishman. Hammond's standing in the game is emphasised by the fact that, on his way to the final, he defeats real-life champions such as Lleyton Hewitt and Roger Federer; Colt's victims, by comparison, are all fictional characters. (The film also refers by name to other real-life tennis players such as Serena Williams and Andy Roddick, and there are thinly-disguised portraits of Henman and Amelie Mauresmo).
Although the film is billed as a romantic comedy, there is not that much humour; I suspect that if the script had been written by Richard Curtis it would have been a good deal wittier than it is. Most of the attempts at raising laughs centre upon Peter's difficult younger brother Carl, or upon old puns like "love means nothing in tennis", or the occasional piece of bawdiness. Even the romance often has to take second place to the tennis. It is a standard convention of rom-coms that there has to be some obstacle to the love of the young couple, and an attempt is made to provide one here in the shape of Lizzie's over-protective father, but he proves to be an insufficiently serious obstacle for any real dramatic tension to develop. This is generally a watchable film, and Bettany makes a likable hero, but there is nothing really deep or memorable about it. 6/10