What a racket! 'Wimbledon' has winning strategy

By Eleanor O'Sullivan
Asbury Park (N.J.) Press

WIMBLEDON (Rated PG-13) Two and One-Half Stars (Fair-to-Good) Kirsten Dunst and Paul Bettany are tennis players and lovers whose games are affected for better and worse by what goes on under the sheets. Richard Loncraine directed. 100 minutes, Universal.

Consider this: Kirsten Dunst has been featured as the movie's star (high profile publicity and personal appearances) because she is Hollywood and is the big name in the cast, and her reported breakup with another Hollywood star, Jake Gyllenhaal, has made her a juicy gossip item.

So, the marketers figure, they can get audiences in with Dunst's name and notoriety and with the tennis. But once you get into the actual theater, you'll find that co-star Paul Bettany ("Master and Commander," and Jennifer Connelly's husband) is the real star of the show. This is still another canny marketing move. Audience buzz will get the word out that "Wimbledon" is really a guy movie, and that will (in addition to much excellent tennis) get the most lucrative audience of all in — guys under 35.

Why spend so much time analyzing marketing ploys? Because "Wimbledon" as a movie is rather routine. It takes place at the famous Wimbledon (England) tennis tournament. Bettany's character, Peter Colt, is nearing 32 and about to retire from tennis. He is ranked 119th among tennis pros, but the minute Dunst's court hotshot, Lizzie Bradbury, spots Peter, she ranks him No. 1, in bed anyway.

They have pre-tournament sex together, to relax her. They don't fall in love, exactly, and they have different court responses to the sex: His game improves so greatly he moves up and up the tournament ladder, while she falters a bit. Will Peter prevail to the championships? Will Lizzie stop relaxing so much that she fouls up her shot at winning?

More importantly, does "Wimbledon" debunk the no-sex-before-athletic-competition mantra of "Rocky?" If so, don't tell Adrian.

The subsidiary characters of "Wimbledon" add a bit of flavor, but not much. There's Sam Neill of New Zealand playing Dunst's controlling American father (Neill affects a Jack Nicholson-like sneer and verbal sputter that's pretty amusing), and Jon Favreau, portraying manager of both Peter and Lizzie (Favreau reminds us of but doesn't measure up to Jeff Garlin's manager-lawyer of TV's "Curb Your Enthusiasm"). Wonderfully witty Eleanor Bron ("Bedazzled") is cast in such a wan role, she's wasted, but Bernard Hill as her hubby is better.

As for the chemistry between Bettany and Dunst, it's more like brother and sister, but that sounds kinky. Let's just say they seem very comfortable together, rather like a couple that's been married for years and now looks back fondly at their glory days on the court.

Rated PG-13 for profanity, sex.