Borg vs McEnroe

The epic Centre Court battle at Wimbledon 1980 provides the backdrop to this solid drama examining the men behind the match, Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe. Their rivalry was a media dream: the ice-cool champion seeking a record-breaking fifth successive title pitted against his only serious contender, the brattish New Yorker on the block. Accompanying biographical elements tell us more about the Swedish superstar (Sverrir Gudnason, bearing an uncanny resemblance to the tennis legend), while what viewers learn about McEnroe (a surprisingly subdued Shia LaBeouf) barely ventures beyond newspaper headlines of the time. Director Janus Metz stages the final showdown with flair, lightning-fast edits and vertiginous overhead camera shots that really crank up the tension, although its impact is lessened by the fact that almost everyone already knows the outcome. Stellan Skarsgård impresses as Borg's Zen-like coach Lennart Bergelin, but most of the other characters are reduced to near clichés in a film that holds the attention but never quite serves an ace.