I maybe shouldn't be reviewing this film, as I came in half way through, but if I'd seen it from the start I'd have turned it off.
To start with, this is a fantasy-flick. A Brit wins Wimbledon? Oh puleeze! Unfortunately it's on the night we lost to Germany in the World Cup, which doesn't help.
This is one of those Britflicks whose production values are designed to appeal to American audiences in the feeble hope that the film will make some money. This rarely comes off. We are a hard hearted unpleasant cynical race who ought to leave schmaltzy sentimentality to the Americans who are expert in it. British films made for British tastes occasionally strike it lucky over there, but in a completely unpredictable fashion. I have no idea whether this one did, but I doubt it.
Look at the storyline involving the little ballboy hit on the head. Our Hero shows him a little care and tenderness. How unbritish! In a true Britflick nobody would have cared if he'd been carried off stone dead.
This film, like so many we make, falls quite expertly between two stools. If it's on again I'll watch 'The day after tomorrow' instead. A pretty grim load of sentimental unscientific tosh, but it beats this. Or I might dig the garden.
To start with, this is a fantasy-flick. A Brit wins Wimbledon? Oh puleeze! Unfortunately it's on the night we lost to Germany in the World Cup, which doesn't help.
This is one of those Britflicks whose production values are designed to appeal to American audiences in the feeble hope that the film will make some money. This rarely comes off. We are a hard hearted unpleasant cynical race who ought to leave schmaltzy sentimentality to the Americans who are expert in it. British films made for British tastes occasionally strike it lucky over there, but in a completely unpredictable fashion. I have no idea whether this one did, but I doubt it.
Look at the storyline involving the little ballboy hit on the head. Our Hero shows him a little care and tenderness. How unbritish! In a true Britflick nobody would have cared if he'd been carried off stone dead.
This film, like so many we make, falls quite expertly between two stools. If it's on again I'll watch 'The day after tomorrow' instead. A pretty grim load of sentimental unscientific tosh, but it beats this. Or I might dig the garden.