Wimbledon (2004)

Peter Colt (Paul Bettany) is a British tennis player on the way down. Then he meets and falls for up-and-coming American Lizzie Bradbury (Kirsten Dunst) and suddenly his game improves. But Lizzie’s father (Sam Neill) doesn’t want her focus changed, so tries to put a stop to the affair. 

This is a surprisingly entertaining film, with some funny lines. Bettany and Dunst have real chemistry. It’s also quite exciting and dramatic in terms of the tennis itself – even though I don’t much care for the sport. As Colt moves up through the tournament it actually gets quite exciting. I like the way we “hear” his thoughts – all his self-doubts and hopes mixed up in a chaotic interior monologue. It’s also nice to see former champions John McEnroe and Chris Evert playing themselves as commentators, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is likeable as Colt’s friend Dieter. 

On the downside, the thread regarding Colt’s parents (whose failing marriage is rekindled by their son’s changing fortunes) isn’t really necessary and his mum and dad (Eleanor Bron and Bernard Hill) seem silly and oddly unconvincing. 

But overall it’s a charming story, excellently told.

Headhunters (2011)

The highest-grossing Norwegian film ever is a brilliantly tense thriller about a corporate headhunter (Aksel Hennie as Roger Brown) who leads a secret life as an art thief. When Roger meets Clas Greve (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), the owner of a Rubens painting worth tens of millions, he decides to steal it – even though Greve is an ex-military specialist in tracking people. The plot quickly escalates via a series of remarkable twists and turns, and Roger’s life spirals out of control.

Sometimes it seems far-fetched, but the storytelling is handled so well done that the narrative totally works. At other times it seems to toy with a strange sense of humour – the blackest imaginable – such as when Roger takes off in a farm vehicle with a dead dog impaled on the front of it, or when he has to bury himself in human sewage to avoid being detected.

The drama is remarkable, but it also manages to be a love story of sorts. And the film cleverly plays with the hero/anti-hero conundrum. You find yourself rooting for Roger, despite everything he’s done.

Visually, it’s a little underwhelming. You wonder what a director such as Denis Villeneuve might have done with the same scenarios, but the thrills are such that it doesn’t matter at all.

I first saw this in the cinema, and a woman next to me was literally squirming in her seat with horror and delight at the unrelenting escape/pursuit scenario. At the end, I asked if she was OK and we laughed about how it was so ridiculously exciting.