I saw the movie about a month ago at a screening here in L.A. The interesting part of it was that the four lead actors were there for a Q & A after the movie, so I got to hear them talk about their tennis backgrounds (or lack thereof).
I don't think you want to see it solely for the tennis--you would be very disappointed, both in quantity and quality. Basically, there are maybe 2 (max 3) scenes of the lead actor Jonathan Rhys Myers, who plays a newly off the tour tennis pro teaching at a fancy club in London, hitting with a couple of "students." He said at the screening that he had never played tennis before, but if that's true, he didn't do all that badly (he has a very exaggerated take back on his ground strokes--I don't think they showed him serving, just rallying). If you weren't a tennis player, he would look decent enough I guess.The second lead, a guy named Matthew something, who plays his student, actually looks like he might have had more actual tennis experience, altho' he's playing a beginner. Emily Mortimer who plays Jonathan's wife also hit with him, and she's terrible, but she's supposed to be a real klutz in the movie anyway. In her case, she said she doesn't play tennis.
The only thing I can say about the tennis is that at least it was better than the tennis in the Hugh Grant movie with Sandra Bullock, which was called Two Weeks Notice or something--that was laughable.
That said, it's definitely Woody Allen's best movie in many years--I wouldn't call it great, but it's a pretty good psychological drama with a reasonable amount of suspense and well-acted. Scarlet Johannsen looks great (I'm female, so I don't have more to say on this subject, but you might
). It's probably one of the better movies I've seen recently (and I go to a lot of films).
