Borg/McEnroe: Star wattage of the lead duo helps carry the film through

Tennis fans in the 1980s were crushed when Bjorn Borg retired in 1983 at the age of 26. By then he had already earned legendary status, but his rivalry with an emerging star, the mercurial John McEnroe, was just beginning and had already produced two epic Wimbledon finals in 1980 and 1981. The battle between the icy Swede and the fiery American could have produced so much more. 

The opening night film of the TIFF 2017, Borg/McEnroe, leaves you with a somewhat similar feeling.

This is essentially Borg’s film, as it climaxes with the first of his two Wimbledon finals with McEnroe, which the Swede won. But just as in real life, when a swearing, swaggering McEnroe burst on to the tennis scene and stole the limelight, in this film too it’s hard not to cheer for the maverick American. Especially since he is played by the equally temperamental Shia LaBeouf, a stroke of casting genius.

Swedish actor Sverrir Gudnason matches Borg step for step on the court and off it. The scene in which he arrives for a television interview in a stretch limo, stepping out in a flamboyant fur coat, announces the arrival of two heartthrobs: the original Borg and his young lookalike. 

There’s another casting coup in this film. The young Borg is played by his own 13-year-old son, Leo, who is also a top junior tennis player. As director Janus Metz said wryly, his tennis scenes “were very easy”. 

Shia and Gudnason on the other hand had to go to tennis boot camp. Neither had ever played the sport before. At a TIFF press conference with the film’s cast, the Swedish actor said he trained two hours a day for nearly eight months. 

Although everyone knows how the match ends, the tennis action in the climax is rivetting, thanks to the duo’s performance, the musical score and what Metz called “some movie magic”. 

The film opens with a rising McEnroe firmly lodged in Borg’s head ahead of the 1980 Wimbledon tournament. A creature of habit and superstition, an increasingly tense Borg whips himself into a frenzy of stress as the event approaches. He always wants the same car from the airport to the hotel, and this year, he complains, they have changed the upholstery. He lashes out at his supportive fiancé Marina, “So, when was your last big game?” and fires his mentor and coach, played by Stellan Skarsgard. At least from the film, it’s not entirely clear why — after all, Borg had conquered the tennis world while he was still a teenager — but Gudnason explains: “When we enter the movie, Borg is in a bad place. The feeling of everybody expecting you to win makes you not excited to play, but afraid to lose.” 

The tabloids have already declared McEnroe, the “superbrat”, his worst nightmare. As he monitors McEnroe’s advance through the tournament, watching his matches on television, the American’s outbursts prompt flashbacks to his own surprisingly volatile youth, complete with temper tantrums and racquet smashing before he was advised by his coach never to let a single emotion show. 

McEnroe, meanwhile, is dealing with his own demons. He was a brilliant and gifted child, but apparently not brilliant enough for his demanding parents.

LaBeouf said he didn’t know much about McEnroe’s upbringing until he read the script. “A+ wasn’t enough. There was no easy way to win. It made him very competitive,” he stated. 

In the end, even if it’s not merely a tennis movie, Borg/McEnroe is not much more than a movie about two legendary tennis players. That’s not necessarily a bad thing — the two characters have enough star wattage and achievement to carry a film between them.