My Review- Fifteen Love
Streaming on Foxtel
My Rating 7/10
This 6 part drawn out series starring Aidan Turner I found interesting to a degree as another story portraying the patriarchal power of men in Sport.
It also effectively makes a statement that the women who report sexual misconduct by coaches must be taken seriously and not dismissed until the accused is proven not guilty without a shadow of a doubt .
Aidan Turner is very impressive as the charismatic Glenn Lapthorn a respected and sought after Grand Slam tennis coach.
His former tennis prodigy Justine Pearce played impressively by Ella Lily Hyland reaches the semi final at The French Open tennis tournament but sustains a serious injury forcing her to leave the game .
Five years on Justine is undergoing therapy while her ex coach has successfully moved on to coach a new tennis star .
My problem with this story written and produced by Hania Elkington is that her main character Justine Pearce is so unlikeable unappealing and ruthless she uses people to gain her goals and will stop at nothing to gain revenge on the man she was once so obsessed by.
No reflection on Ella Lily Hyland's performance she plays this character exactly as written as a young women obviously obsessed by her handsome coach and totally jealous of his continued success.
Justine is a very troubled woman with a substance abuse problem and a huge ego who after five years seems more driven by revenge than justice.
On the other hand the coach Glenn Lapthorn in my view gets the audience's sympathy immediately because in contrast to his accuser Justine he seems so likeable.
Perhaps that's exactly what the story creator Hania Elkington and Directors Toby MacDonald and Eva Riley wanted to portray but the story didn't ring true for me.
Especially after 6 episodes for me another story that probably would have been a better movie however I did enjoy the performances very much as a whole the plot just seemed a little improbable to me.
I enjoyed all the performances from the supporting cast especially Maria Almeida,
Harmony Rose Bremner who play upcoming tennis stars and the coaches wife Khalida Lapthorn played so well by Manon Azem.