Movie Review: Wimbledon

Even as an avid tennis player and watcher, Wimbledon never struck me as an interesting movie. In fact, it took a boring day of work and absolutely nothing decent on the television to get me to sit down and watch part of it.

Watching Wimbledon left me with one distinct impression...this was the Paul Bettany show. Mr. Bettany demonstrates what a great actor can do with mediocre material. It's unfortunate that the director soured his performance by borrowing Kevin Costner's "Clear the Mechanism" special effects from For Love of the Game during some of the matches. While Peter Colt, Bettany's character, does not actually say "Clear the Mechanism", the editing used would remind anyone of Costner's movie.

Overlooking the lack of originality introduced in editing along with a couple of exruciating dialog moments by Kirsten Dunst, Wimbledon turned out to be quite watchable with a sappy, yet poignant ending.