Wimbledon

The latest in Working Title's rom-com production line follows the same likeable lines as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and Bridget Jones's Diary. Paul Bettany takes on the role of fading British tennis player Peter Colt, who's facing his last Wimbledon but gets fuel-injected when he falls for US tennis prodigy Lizzie Bradbury (Kirsten Dunst). Richard Loncraine's movie is great on the loser mentality of British sport, and the actual matches are thrillingly souped-up by some decent CGI effects (as well as the pithy punditry of John McEnroe and Chris Evert). However, away from tennis, Wimbledon doesn't really nail either the comedic or romantic spots. It's amusing rather than hilarious, sweet as opposed to heartfelt — perhaps the smarts and sparkle of a Richard Curtis screenplay would have helped here. Still, Bettany and Dunst do the diffident Brit-meets-brash Yank relationship with appealing charm and, like a certain plucky player from these shores, the whole thing bumbles along with amiable predictability to an inevitable outcome.

The poster for Wimbledon has Kirsten Dunst brandishing a tennis racket sideways so that at first glance it... read more on Time Out