Tennis showdown lacks bounce

Borg vs McEnroe (15)

Verdict: Fire and ice need a warm-up ON THE face of it, Borg vs McEnroe is about a tennis match. But really it’s a boxing movie. To be more precise, it’s Rocky with balls.

A brash young challenger takes on the reigning champ. Can he overcome his demons to claim the big prize? Or will experience and discipline win the day?

The action takes place in and around Wimbledon during two weeks in 1980.

John McEnroe (Shia LaBeouf) is hoping to win the Grand Slam tournament for the first time. Meanwhile, Bjorn Borg (played by Ice Man lookalike Sverrir Gudnason) is aiming to win his fifth Wimbledon title on the spin, something that had never been done before. The stage is set for an epic sporting contest.

As fans of the American hot-head will know, McEnroe lets it all hang out on court, becoming so emotionally invested in each point he frequently blows up, hitting balls into the crowd, smashing his racket and hurling abuse at the umpire. Bjorg, by contrast, is a buttoned-up cyborg.

We learn that Bjorg started out exactly like McEnroe, but has been forced to repress his emotions by coach Lennart Bergelin (Stellan Skarsgard).

If the film-makers are to be believed, Bjorg has paid a heavy price for developing this iron self-control. He hides behind the mask of his celebrity and responds to his fiancee’s love talk with monosyllabic grunts.

He needs to take the title again to satisfy himself that the psychological disfigurement has been worth it. But if McEnroe wins, given that he hasn’t had to lobotomise himself, it will all have been for nought.

If all this sounds a bit too neat and contrived, that’s because it is.

It reminded me of Rush, the 2013 film about Formula One rivals James Hunt and Niki Lauda, but without the psychological nuance. That, too, was a boxing movie — Rocky on wheels — but it packed a knockout punch.

Borg vs McEnroe goes the distance, but it’s not the main event.