Richard Loncraine
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Connections, in both directions
The Anglo-American culture clash has been a common theme of numerous recent Britcoms, from "Four Weddings and a Funeral" to "Notting Hill" to "Love, Actually."
"Wimbledon" is refried "Notting Hill" with a Teen People glaze.
As Paul and Lizzie both seek but also resist their celebrity, Wimbledon opts for the most common, most Notting Hill-ish resolution.
As I watched the film, I thought about how Hugh Grant in the role of Peter – especially since the producers are credited with “Four Weddings and a Funeral” and “Notting Hill.”
To say that Wimbledon borrows from other more successful Working Title romantic comedies, like Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill, is putting it mildly.
Presented by the same producers of incredibly successful British comedies like “Notting Hill” and “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” director Richard Loncraine makes sure to include the same peculiar humor that set apart the aforementioned films from other comedies, but it won’t necessarily have the audience rolling around on the floor with laughter.
Continuing the trend of Spider-Man love interests giving tennis films a whirl (see: Civil War's Kirsten Dunst with Wimbledon, then Poor Things' Emma Stone with Battle of the Sexes), Zendaya doesn't just make Tashi formidable and unforgettable; her portrayal, which is one of her best ever alongside Euphoria, firmly matches.
This is not the rather diffident stroke-play of Kirsten Dunst and Paul Bettany in the quaint, but in some ways comparable, tennis movie Wimbledon from 2004, though the gamesmanship and toxic masculinity reminded me pleasantly of Ian Carmichael and Terry-Thomas trying to impress Janette Scott during the famous tennis scene in the 1960 British classic School for Scoundrels.
The Anglo-American culture clash has been a common theme of numerous recent Britcoms, from "Four Weddings and a Funeral" to "Notting Hill" to "Love, Actually."
Working Title, the company that brought us Four Weddings and a Funeral and now serves up Richard Loncraine�s Wimbledon, can be depended on for films with an affable, low-key charm.
As I watched the film, I thought about how Hugh Grant in the role of Peter – especially since the producers are credited with “Four Weddings and a Funeral” and “Notting Hill.”
To say that Wimbledon borrows from other more successful Working Title romantic comedies, like Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill, is putting it mildly.
This insufferable rom-com from the production team responsible for Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill is built around the ludicrous notion that the best way for a tennis player to improve his game is to shag a young nymphet, preferably Spider-Man’s girlfriend.
Faring considerably better is Paul Bettany in "Wimbledon," a high lob of romantic fluff from the producers who confected "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and "Notting Hill."
The grand star plays ''Al Pacino'' ? to be sure, a cockeyed version ? and when we first meet him, this Al is on stage in a production of Shakespeare's Richard III, mad as hell because the ringing of some idiot's mobile phone in the audience has distracted him.
A YouTube video of the man breaking character in a stage production of Richard III in order to castigate an audience member who didn’t silence his or her cell phone (shades of Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman ?) is genuinely inspired, while other moments are more familiar I’m Still Here territory.
There are strong echoes of Richard III in Aguirre's power-mad quest, especially when he sets up the expedition's token royal (Berling) as Emperor of El Dorado.
The Anglo-American culture clash has been a common theme of numerous recent Britcoms, from "Four Weddings and a Funeral" to "Notting Hill" to "Love, Actually."
Working Title seems to have a corner on British romantic comedies (Bridget Jones, Notting Hill, you name it), especially when combined with British wish-fulfilment fantasies (a prime minister to be proud of in Love Actually, an English tennis champ here).
All these ingredients are present and correct for Wimbledon, but happily – at least for anyone who felt Love Actually was like being trapped in a sugar factory - the words “Richard” and “Curtis” do not appear on the writing credits.
Putting it mildly, these folks are not in the Richard Curtis (Love Actually) class but in the Romantic Comedy 101 league.
Call it cinematic magic, but what Wimbledon really lacks is that quirky English wit that helped make Love Actually such an irresistible charmer.
A product of the team behind "Four Weddings and a Funeral," "Notting Hill" and "Love Actually," it's a rousing athletic-underdog story about low-ranked, self-stymied pro tennis player Peter Colt (Bettany, from "A Knight's Tale," "A Beautiful Mind" and "Master and Commander" ) who finds his groove by falling in love with Lizzie Bradbury (Dunst), the rising-star queen troublemaker of women's tennis.
Consider Richard Loncraine's "fascist" version of Richard III, for example or, more to the point, John Boorman's Excalibur, which took the same material that makes up King Arthur and reworked it in terms of Wagenerian opera.
The British actor, who made an impression with American audiences playing the oh-so-witty Chaucer in A Knight's Tale and then wowed them in Oscar winners such as A Beautiful Mind and Master and Commander , doesn't disappoint in his first lead role.
Admittedly, a lightweight, romantic comedy-drama set in the world of tennis does seem like an unlikely choice for Bettany, an underrated character actor who was terrific in both "A Beautiful Mind" and "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World."
Moviegoers began to notice him when he played Russell Crowes roommate in A Beautiful Mind , and Bettany exhibited the breadth of his talent when he played Dr. Stephen Maturin in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World .
A product of the team behind "Four Weddings and a Funeral," "Notting Hill" and "Love Actually," it's a rousing athletic-underdog story about low-ranked, self-stymied pro tennis player Peter Colt (Bettany, from "A Knight's Tale," "A Beautiful Mind" and "Master and Commander" ) who finds his groove by falling in love with Lizzie Bradbury (Dunst), the rising-star queen troublemaker of women's tennis.
Paul Bettany, the charming scene-stealer of "A Beautiful Mind" and "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World," has long deserved his own starring vehicle, but the romantic comedy "Wimbledon" serves him poorly.
Bettany is a familiar face, having been seen in films like A Beautiful Mind and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.
"Jupiter Ascending" smashes together the narrative particles of everything from "Richard III" to "Soylent Green" with a cinematic style that could be called High Thor.
I realize this isn’t supposed to be Richard III, but a little more effort to give the villain some menace and motivation would have helped.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)
Directed by Matt Reeves
influenced by Richard III (1995)
Themes
With rivalries and jealousies brewing between both father and son and leader and lieutenant, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is something of a modern-day Richard III.
The human being behind Definitely, Maybe is Adam Brooks, whose previous scripts (Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, Wimbledon, French Kiss) showed a bent for chick-flick insouciance, and who here takes on the added task of director.
Though falling a good bit short of the best of the Working Title-produced romantic comedies—like Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001), About a Boy (2002) and Love Actually (2003)—Adam Brooks’ Definitely, Maybe marks a notable improvement over the company’s last two efforts, Wimbledon and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (both 2004).
Because you just never know where the next amazing one is going to come from, and sometimes it’s even better when they come from a quarter that floors you, like from Adam Brooks, who adapted and directed the very intriguing and little-seen The Invisible Circus in 2001 but who has also written some less than satisfying romantic dramedies such as Wimbledon and Practical Magic .
Perhaps this is due to filmmaker Adam Brooks , who is not a bar-coded Hollywood drone, but an idiosyncratic filmmaker ("The Invisible Circus") who's been making some scratch in recent years writing such enjoyable mainstream fare as "Wimbledon" and the "Bridget Jones" sequel.
For writer/director Adam Brooks (who previously scripted the underrated Wimbledon ), the ambitious result is not without flaws but, on the whole, it is a success.
Writer/director Adam Brooks ("The Invisible Circus," "Wimbledon") looks to have a Valentine's hit on his hands with a vehicle obviously meant as a breakthrough for star Reynolds, but while "Definitely, Maybe" is definitely a cut above the usual February fodder, it maybe feels too second hand with roots in everything from "The Princess Bride's" bedtime story structure to television's "How I Met Your Mother's" teasing central concept.
They are also outfitted with labels as well as names: Cruz is “The Missionary”; Willem Dafoe plays “The Professor,” who voices pro-Nazi sympathies; Michelle Pfeiffer (in Bacall's former role) essays “The Widow”; Daisy Ridley (taking the baton from Redgrave) becomes “The Governess”; Judi Dench (stepping in for Hiller) is in her element as the imperious Princess Dragomiroff; and Olivia Colman is “The Maid” for the latter (Rachel Roberts in the original).
Director Gary Winick (2009's " Bride Wars ") and cinematographer Marco Pontecorvo (2006's " Firewall "), taking advantage of their exotic locations, shoot the rustic villages and sun-dappled vineyards of Italy with loving care.
Like some stars before him — Daniel Day-Lewis in “My Left Foot,” Ian McKellen in “Richard III” — he has created not the mere study of an infirmity but the drama of a man trapped inside one, fighting ferociously to emerge.
Taking a page from the Michael Bay handbook that states no shot should be longer than a quarter of a second and no chaotic image should be captured at any distance other than in extreme close-up, cinematographer Dariusz Wolski (2007's " Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street ") and editor Jim Page (2006's " Firewall ") carry out their duties while suffering from what would seem to be epileptic seizures.
Lyne and cinematographer Peter Biziou ("The Truman Show," "Richard III") lay it on so thick that you can't help but imagine that they got a great deal on industrial grade trowels and then went to town slopping the imagery on one scene after the next.