Grade: C+ | Genre: Romantic Comedy Summary: Wimbledon proves a mixed bag. Tennis fans will no doubt rejoice that they finally have a film to embrace as their own but for those of you looking for a film to inject you with that warm and fuzzy feeling along the lines of Notting Hill, I'd stick with Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts.

Starring: Kirsten Dunst and Paul Bettany
Director: Richard Loncraine

It is refreshing to finally see Hollywood making a feature film based on tennis. It is an exciting sport that usually gets overlooked for the flashier, more popular baseball, football and basketball. Sadly it appears that the studio felt that instead of focusing on the human drama inherent within, such as Friday Night Lights, they needed to plug this into a Hollywood formula to stem the nagging from the marketing department. Enter your token romantic comedy where love triumphs over all, queue the Peter Cetera song.

Paul Bettany plays Peter Cort a 30 something, professional British tennis player who laid claim to a number 11 ranking in the world early in his career but finds himself at 115th nursing a finicky back and a quickness that he misplaced long ago. He enters his final Wimbledon as a wild card draw before retiring to instruct the games of rich, aging women as a club pro. By chance, he walks in on American bad girl and tennis sensation Lizzie Bradbury, played by Kirsten Dunst, showering because most of us are usually that lucky. Sorry gentleman, the fog is a definite killjoy here. An unlikely romance begins to unfurl over serve practice and musings about the effectiveness of sex before a match. You'd love to give these two the benefit of the doubt but there is no chemistry brewing between them. We never see this love forming and you're forced to take the character's word for it. Kirsten is so out of his league in too many ways to count and the story about how he initially struck her notice was extremely weak. Peter's new found love edges him into the winner's circle as his game is magically transformed overnight into astounding forehands and pinpoint aces against the top ranked players in the world. The romance really weighs heavily on this story and often serves as distraction from the more compelling look at this underdog battling against tremendous odds that was fairly effective. They don't sugar coat the problems that come with Peter's age and they approach facets like being matched up against his long standing tennis partner with insight and honesty. The tennis elements are handed very well as are the films attention to detail in these aspects. They open up a door into Peter's mental struggles and wanderings that plague him during the match. They accurately feature the emotion that spits out at bad calls and that tension which slowly snowballs during critical points. As a tennis fan, the inner glimpses at Wimbledon were certainly fascinating and the addition of rain (it always rains at Wimbledon) and the Brits eternal need for a home grown champion were nice smaller touches that made this feel real. So in all, Wimbledon proves a mixed bag. Tennis fans will no doubt rejoice that they finally have a film to embrace as their own but for those of you looking for a film to inject you with that warm and fuzzy feeling along the lines of Notting Hill, I'd stick with Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts.

Queue Wimbledon up at Netflix.