Hi.
I thought you'd gone.
Yeah. Me too. Having a tough day?
Well, you know. Disastrous.
Except for the fact that you didn't go gooey when the ball boy got hit.
Yeah. Sorry.
Why are you British apologizing all the time? Don't apologize to me. I love you. Apologize to the people who are rooting for you out there.
What'd you say?
I said that the whole country has been waiting ..
No. No. The other bit.
I said I love you.
See, that's very good news. I thought I was alone in the love department.
Well, turns out you've got company.
I am so sorry.
If you say sorry one more time, you're gonna be sorry.
I meant about the other night.
Shh! Stop it. Forget about that. This is about you. Go out there and decide who you are.
And who might that be?
That might be a winner.
Wimbledon punya kisah yang sebenernya ga terlalu istimewa. Kisah dua petenis dalam perebutan gelar juara paling bergengsi di Wimbledon, Inggris (as if you hadn't known about it yet). Yang pria dari Inggris, Peter Colt udah memasuki usia "berbahaya" dan punya prestasi yang menurun sampe memutuskan untuk gantung raket seusai turnamen, sedangkan yang wanita dari Amerika, Lizzie Bradburry punya prestasi yang sedang meroket dan lagi "lucu-lucunya". They met, they fell, they won and lost the game when love got in the way. Dan endingnya .. predictable.So what else is in there to sell?
Paul Bettany. For sure, he's the main reason I picked Wimbledon. He, as the leading actor. Well, aside from the elegant poster and the premise of tennis .. the sport familiar enough for me to count the game points along, to know whether the ball is in or out .. cabang olahraga yang sayangnya sangat jarang diangkat ke dalam film, kemungkinan karena ritme-nya yang terlalu lambat. Bahkan gue berani memberikan penilaian sebelum gue nonton filmnya .. I thought I was gonna love this movie. For better, for worse .. it's a romantic comedy anyway. Chick-flick can't go wrong (really, huh?). And with Paul Bettany in it .. o man, I was deadly anxious.
Pertama kali nonton Bettany di A Knight's Tale sebagai si penulis Geoffrey Chaucer, dengan mudahnya dia mencuri perhatian gue (no, I'm not talking about the nude appearance .. well .. yeah, maybe a little bit .. for the beginning at least). Terus sebagai roommate-nya Russell Crowe dalam A Beautiful Mind, dan kembali sebagai sidekick-nya Crowe dalam Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World .. terus terang, gue lebih demen ngeliatin si pemeran pendukung daripada ngeliatin pemeran utamanya =D. I'm quoting Berardinelli, "Bettany was one of the few people who's fun to watch". And do I agree with the statement? Absolutely. My thought exactly. Padahal Bettany itu .. ganteng ga, malah cenderung berkulit pucat penuh freckles seperti seorang albino (kejam! heheh ..), senyumnya kadang keliatan canggung .. he's like an average man who can easily go unnoticed .. but once you put your generous attention on him, for the slightest, you'll see that he has this certain quality in his acting. He can melt in the character, lighten the movie up, in big or small ways. His facial expressions and gestures are excellent, he hardly bores you. His stares shoot through you, you feel that you could read his feelings. Oh, and he's tall and he's British, which makes him even sexy with his accent .. (maybe that's how Jennifer Connelly falls for him .. haha ..).
Dengan figur seperti ini, it is kinda creepy, though expected, how Bettany really looked like (and played like) a pro tennis player in this movie. A Boris Becker like. Lebih mudah mengidentifikasikan Bettany sebagai Peter daripada lawan mainnya, Kirsten Dunst. Dunst is a decent actress too, tapi dia harus bekerja sedikit lebih keras untuk menghilangkan image MJ Watson dari dua jilid film Spider-Man, dan melebur ke dalam karakter Lizzie. Quite a success, but not really standing-out. In terms of chemistry .. keduanya .. Peter and Lizzie .. hmm .. Bettany and Dunst .. they're very sweet together. There are moments when the conversations were getting serious, I believe they're both in love only by seeing how they looked at each other (walaupun gue tetap ngerasa kalo Peter itu masih terlalu baik buat Lizzie yang kekanak-kanakan, duh). And not to mention the jokes they threw at each other .. one of my favorite, at the diner when Peter intentionally mis-called Lizzie by "Leslie" .. aw, that's a cute scene.
Selebihnya .. the movie itself. Anybody doesn't like tennis? Well, you're not alone. It's a really slow game, potentially boring. Gue selalu bilang tenis itu seperti golf .. permainan orang-orang kaya yang mau berolahraga, tapi malas bergerak cepat .. hehehe .. But in fact, tennis is classy. It's full of style. You might want to check out how the players serve the balls. It's not easy with the heavy rackets and heavy balls. And Richard Loncraine made this movie about love and tennis so believable and nice, we can enjoy it without thinking heavily. Keputusannya mengganti bola tenis dengan CGI daripada mengganti pemain dengan stunt (kecuali pada saat bola di-serve) .. surprise, surprise, who could have known, kudos to the actors and the tennis instructor (Pat Cash, I may say, the Australian champ). Loncraine mengarahkan kamera dengan angle-angle yang membuat tennis match penuh dengan adrenalin .. close-up, slow motion .. kepalan tangan, bola yang di-toss, raket yang diputar-putar, gerakan kaki menjejak, bola yang bergulir di atas net .. selayaknya yang biasa dibuat oleh iklan sport atau cuplikan-cuplikan winning points di TV. It could take your breath. Suasana turnamen Wimbledon juga diambil se-real mungkin, di-shoot sepanjang turnamen 2003 dengan penonton yang diminta sebagai extras sebelum dan sesudah pertandingan. Kehadiran John McEnroe dan Chris Evert sebagai komentator juga menawarkan sentuhan nyata dari dunia tenis.
And the script. Walaupun adegan dan dialog-nya masih ada yang klise (ada juga yang meniru film lain .. the cucumber sandwiches, you guess where it is copied from), semuanya menghibur. Kebiasaan-kebiasaan petenis yang superstitious, termasuk urusan mengantongi bola di kantong celana, bisa diliat di sini juga. Humor-nya ga asal, gue bilang malah ada yang halus banget. Ditambah dengan narasi inner voice dari Peter Colt keselip di sana-sini .. it's wicked! It's fresh, it's funny, it's sharp .. sometimes quite sarcastic .. itu yang menambah nilai Wimbledon. Wanna know what's in the player's mind when the stake is high? In Peter Colt's, "Oh my god, oh my god". And in mine, "Oh my god, oh my god" too. That was intense .. hahahaha ..
Kalo dibandingin sama film-film romantic comedy (atau film sport) yang lain, flow Wimbledon ini lebih sederhana, lebih tenang dan ga meletup-letup. Durasinya juga cuma sekitar satu setengah jam. But I couldn't get enough of it, I've seen it three times (plus one more for the commentary) for the last four days. Yeah, you may call me a freak. Believe me or not, waktu nonton kedua kalinya .. gue nonton bareng orang-orang rumah .. it seems like a new movie for me, with the same anticipation and excitement from the opening credit to the closing. Sedangkan orang-orang rumah gue .. er .. 20 menit film berjalan, my sister said "Kok kayaknya boring sih? Emang beneran bagus ya? Coba matiin dulu deh, gue ga konsen nontonnya" (soalnya dia nonton sambil ngerjain sesuatu). Film gue matiin selama dua jam, terus diputer ulang .. 15 menit film berjalan, my bro-in-law said "When is it gonna be interesting?" .. I answered shortly, "When it ends". Then few minutes later he said, "Please tell me he's not gonna win the Wimbledon at the end of the movie" .. and something more cynical such as "This girl from Spiderman, she's such a whore" .. and he walked out of the movie *lol*. Sementara adik gue yang tadi ngasih komentar pertama kali, plus yang lain-lain tetap duduk nonton sampe film berakhir. From my brief observation on their behaviour while watching, they enjoy it.
See .. I'm not talking high about this movie (or am I? =D). I'm just saying .. give this movie your consideration. For some people, it is a slow-starting one. But who knows, you might find a winner when it ends.
I've found it.
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