Underground, Overground, Wombling Free

The Wombles of Wimbledon Common are we.

I love that show. But that's not what I'm writing about. A couple of Monday's ago I went to see a preview of 'Shall We Dance', but a simple confusion of dates means we arrived a week early. Instead of abandoning filmic plans, we saw Wimbledon.

Starring Paul Bettany and Kirstin Dunst as two Pro Tennis Players. Wimbledon is a stock standard romcom. Boy and girl meet, instant attraction and then something comes between them. Obviously, in this case, it's tennis.

Peter Colt is ranked 117th, sorry, 111th and is expected to bow out in the first round. Everyone is surprised when he wins the match, but not nearly as much as Colt himself. He announces his intention of retirement at the end of the tournament. Dunst's Lizzie Bradbury is an up and coming star who plays an aggressive game. She is ploughing her way up the rankings.

Bettany is charming and Dunst is a good match for him (ahem). Both characters are potentially two dimensional but are given pleasing depth and believability. There is a battle for screen time between the love story and tennis matches, but either way you want it to go there seems to be enough of both to satisfy.

The tennis footage is excellent. The actors who played onscreen were very convincing, I never had one of those 'what da?' moments, because the actor is clearly not capable of what their stunt double has just pulled off. When the going gets tense the ball does turn into a CG creation, but you'd have to be looking rather hard to pick it (I usually am).

Wimbledon is a pleasing sports romcom with elements for a good 'chick flick' and enough grunting for a sports movie. Worth seeing on the big screen for the tennis, or if you want to drool over it's stars.