''Wimbledon'' is a 2004

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

film directed by

Richard Loncraine Richard Loncraine (born 20 October 1946) is a British film and television director. Loncraine was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Loncraine received early training in the features department of the BBC, including a season directing items ...

. The film stars

Paul Bettany Paul Bettany (born 27 May 1971) is an English actor. He is mostly known for his roles as J.A.R.V.I.S. and Vision in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, recently starring in the Disney+ miniseries '' WandaVision'' (2021), for which he was nominate ...

as a journeyman

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

pro (once ranked 11th) and

Kirsten Dunst Kirsten Caroline Dunst (; born April 30, 1982) is an American actress. She made her acting debut in the short ''Oedipus Wrecks'' directed by Woody Allen in the anthology film ''New York Stories'' (1989). She then gained recognition for her rol ...

as an up-and-coming tennis star.

Sam Neill Sir Nigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill (born 14 September 1947) is a New Zealand actor. Neill's near-50 year career has included leading roles in both dramas and blockbusters. Considered an "international leading man", he has been regarded as one o ...

and

Jon Favreau Jonathan Kolia Favreau (; born October 19, 1966) is an American actor and filmmaker. As an actor, Favreau has appeared in films such as ''Rudy (film), Rudy'' (1993), ''PCU (film), PCU'' (1994), ''Swingers (1996 film), Swingers'' (1996), ''Very ...

co-star.

Plot

Peter Colt, a British professional tennis player in his thirties whose

ranking A ranking is a relationship between a set of items such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than" or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak order or total preorder of o ...

has slipped from 11th to 119th in the world, has never really had to fight for anything, as his wealthy family allowed him to easily pursue his tennis ambitions. Though he earns a

wildcard Wild card most commonly refers to: * Wild card (cards), a playing card that substitutes for any other card in card games * Wild card (sports), a tournament or playoff place awarded to an individual or team that has not qualified through normal pla ...

spot to the Wimbledon tournament, he feels it's time to admit he's getting too old to compete with fitter up-and-coming younger players and intends, after this last Wimbledon, to take a job with a prestigious tennis club. As Wimbledon begins, he bumps into Lizzie Bradbury, the American rising star of female tennis. They fall in love and her interest in him changes his entire perception, even giving him the strength to win again. As their love grows, Peter's game becomes better and better. Lizzie's overprotective father-manager Dennis Bradbury is determined to nip their relationship in the bud, believing it detrimental to her career. One day, Dennis comes to Peter's old flat and yells at him for spoiling his daughter's game. Lizzie overhears this and decides to leave him and focus on her game. The night before their semifinal matches, Peter sneaks into Lizzie's hotel room and persuades her to have sex. The next day, he performs above expectations and wins in straight sets, but Lizzie loses. Lizzie angrily breaks up with Peter, claiming his selfishness made her lose, and decides to immediately return to the United States to train. Peter has to play the final match against Jake Hammond, an arrogant American star and world number 1. At the airport, Lizzie watches an interview on TV in which Peter apologizes and declares his love for her. She returns to Wimbledon. As Lizzie reaches the stadium, Peter has lost two sets in the final and is behind in the third. When the game is suspended due to rain, Lizzie appears in the dressing room and forgives him. She tells him the secret of Jake's tricky serves and Peter fights back to win the title (3–6, 2–6, 6–4, 7–6^(8-6), 6–4). Now a national hero in Britain, he and Lizzie get married. With his support, Lizzie goes on to win the U.S. Open and Wimbledon twice, ultimately achieving her dreams. In the last scene, Peter is with their younger child, a boy, watching Lizzie and their elder child, a girl, playing tennis on a neighborhood court in New York City.

Cast

as Peter Colt *

as Lizzie Bradbury *

as Dennis Bradbury *

James McAvoy James McAvoy (; born 21 April 1979) is a Scottish actor. He made his acting debut as a teen in '' The Near Room'' (1995) and appeared mostly on television until 2003, when his feature film career began. His notable television work includes ...

as Carl Colt *

Bernard Hill Bernard Hill (born 17 December 1944) is an English actor. He is well recognized for playing King Théoden in ''The Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy, Captain Edward Smith in ''Titanic'', and Luther Plunkitt, the Warden of San Quentin Prison in the ...

as Edward Colt *

Eleanor Bron Eleanor Bron (born 14 March 1938) is an English stage, film and television actress, and an author. Her film roles include Ahme in the Beatles musical ''Help!'' (1965), the Doctor in '' Alfie'' (1966), Margaret Spencer in '' Bedazzled'' (1967), a ...

as Augusta Colt *

Celia Imrie Celia Diana Savile Imrie (born 15 July 1952) is an English actress and author. She was described in 2003 as one of the most successful British actresses of recent decades. She is best known for her film roles, including the '' Bridget Jones'' f ...

as Mrs Kenwood *

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau Nikolaj William Coster-Waldau (; born 27 July 1970) is a Danish actor and producer. He graduated from the Danish National School of Performing Arts in Copenhagen in 1993, and had his breakthrough role in Denmark with the film '' Nightwatch'' (19 ...

as Dieter Prohl *

Austin Nichols Austin Nichols (born April 24, 1980) is an American actor and director, known for his role as Julian Baker in The CW drama series ''One Tree Hill''. He is also known for his roles in the films ''The Day After Tomorrow'' and '' Wimbledon''. He st ...

as Jake Hammond *

as Ron Roth * Jonathan Timmins as the Ballboy * Robert Lindsay as Ian Frazier *

Martin Wimbush Martin Wimbush (born 1949) is a British actor known for his roles in film, television, and theatre. Early life and education Born in London, Wimbush trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama between 1967 and 1969, and then worked e ...

as Court Official *

Cecilia Dazzi Cecilia Dazzi (born 17 October 1969) is an Italian actress, television personality and songwriter. Early life Born in Rome, she is the daughter of film producer Tommaso Dazzi. Career She made her film debut in 1987, in Ettore Scola's '' Th ...

as Billi Clementi ;Real tennis professionals on set *

Dominic Inglot Dominic Inglot ( ; born 6 March 1986) is a British former professional tennis player and a Davis Cup champion. A doubles specialist; he made the final of twenty seven ATP World Tour events, winning fourteen, including the Citi Open and Swiss In ...

as Paul Bettany's tennis double * Vikas Punna as Ajay Bhatt *

Beti Sekulovski Beti Sekulovski (born 17 May 1983) is a former professional tennis player from Australia. Biography Sekulovski was born in Melbourne, to parents who emigrated from Macedonia. On the professional tour, she had a highest singles ranking of 273 a ...

as Lizzie's first opponent *

Murphy Jensen Murphy Jensen (born October 30, 1968) is an American former professional tennis player and Grand Slam doubles champion. He is the younger brother of former professional tennis player Luke Jensen, with whom he teamed to win the 1993 French Ope ...

as Ivan Dragomir * Alun Jones as Tom Cavendish * Rebecca Dandeniya as Arliyia Rupesinghe *

John McEnroe John Patrick McEnroe Jr. (born February 16, 1959) is an American former professional tennis player. He was known for his shot-making and volleying skills, his rivalries with Björn Borg and Jimmy Connors, and his confrontational on-court beha ...

as Himself/Commentator *

Chris Evert Christine Marie Evert (born December 21, 1954), known as Chris Evert Lloyd from 1979 to 1987, is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. Evert won 18 major singles titles, including a record seven French Open titles and a joint-record ...

as Herself/Commentator *

Mary Carillo Mary Carillo (born March 15, 1957) is an American sportscaster and former professional tennis player. She is an analyst for '' Tennis on NBC'' and a reporter for NBC Olympic broadcasts. Career Tennis Carillo played on the women's professional ...

as Herself/Commentator * John Barrett as Himself/Commentator *

Pat Cash Patrick Hart Cash (born 27 May 1965) is an Australian former professional tennis player. He reached a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 4 in May 1988 and a career-high ATP doubles ranking of world No. 6 in August 1988. Upon winning ...

was the tennis adviser on set and trained the actors.

Production

Writing

The film is dedicated to

Mark McCormack Mark Hume McCormack (November 6, 1930 – May 16, 2003) was an American lawyer, sports agent and writer. He was the founder and chairman of International Management Group, now IMG, an international management organization serving sports ...

, founder of

International Management Group IMG, originally known as the International Management Group, is a global sports, events and talent management company headquartered in New York City. It has been owned by Endeavor since 2013. Trans World International (TWI) is an event and pro ...

, a management firm for high-level athletes, who died on 16 May 2003.

Casting

The film used locally recruited Wimbledon residents as extras for the crowd scenes.

Filming

The actors served with real tennis balls. All others were added digitally to make it appear like they were playing.

Locations

Some scenes were filmed during the 2003 championships between matches. It is the only time in the history of the tournament that this has been allowed. Some court scenes with Bettany were filmed at the Stoke Park Country Club, home of The

Boodles Challenge The Boodles Tennis Challenge (former Boodle and Dunthorne Champions Challenge) is an international five-day tennis exhibition held at Stoke Park in Buckinghamshire, England. In coordination with Boodles, a luxury jeweler, it was initially foun ...

London Zoo London Zoo, also known as ZSL London Zoo or London Zoological Gardens is the world's oldest scientific zoo. It was opened in London on 27 April 1828, and was originally intended to be used as a collection for science, scientific study. In 1831 o ...

's entrance was used for the entrance to Wimbledon. The beachfront scenes were filmed on location in

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

Reception

Critical reception

Wimbledon received mixed reviews, with a 61% rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on 145 reviews with an average rating of 5.87/10. The consensus reads, "A predictable, bland rom-com, but Bettany proves to be an appealing lead." It received "average" or "mixed" reviews from

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, a 59 out of 100 based on reviews by 35 critics. Stephen Holden of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' wrote that ''Wimbledon'' was "much more conventional" than Loncraine's previous films but with "cleverer-than-average dialogue and sharply drawn subsidiary characters". Michael Charlotte's review for ''

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

'' gave the film three out of five stars, saying, "In tennis parlance, this fires off more moonballs to stay in play than outright winning shots. But Bettany is charming, and thankfully he and Dunst are appealing together".

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

gave the film a positive review: "''Wimbledon'' is a well-behaved movie about nice people who have good things happen to them. That's kind of startling, in a world where movie characters, especially in sports movies, occupy the edge of human experience. What a surprise to hear conversation instead of dialogue, and to realize that the villain may actually be right some of the time". He gave the film three out of four stars.

Box office

The film opened at number four, grossing US$7.1 million in its opening weekend at the North American box office.

Soundtrack

The film's digital soundtrack uses the " Surround EX" format. The song that plays in the trailer of the film is " Everlasting Love" by U2. The film features two songs by the

Sugababes Sugababes are a British girl group composed of Mutya Buena, Keisha Buchanan and Siobhán Donaghy. The lineup changed three times before returning to the original lineup in 2011. Formed in 1998 by All Saints manager Ron Tom, Sugababes releas ...

: "

Caught in a Moment "Caught in a Moment" is a song by English girl group Sugababes from their third studio album ''Three'' (2003). It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 August 2004 as the album's fourth and final single. The song was written by the group's ...

" and "Sometimes", both from the album ''

Three 3 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 3, three, or III may also refer to: * AD 3, the third year of the AD era * 3 BC, the third year before the AD era * March, the third month Books * '' Three of Them'' (Russian: ', literally, "three"), a 1901 ...

''.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wimbledon 2004 films 2004 romantic comedy films 2000s sports comedy films American romantic comedy films American sports comedy films British romantic comedy films British sports comedy films Wimbledon Championships 2000s English-language films English-language French films Films directed by Richard Loncraine Films produced by Eric Fellner Films produced by Tim Bevan Films scored by Edward Shearmur Films set in Brighton Films set in London Films shot at Shepperton Studios Films shot in East Sussex Films shot in London Films shot in Monaco French romantic comedy films French sports comedy films StudioCanal films Tennis films Universal Pictures films Working Title Films films 2000s American films 2000s British films 2000s French films