Playing For Keeps

Playing For Keeps

Director: Gabriele Muccino

Starring: Gerard Butler, Jessica Biel, Dennis Quaid, and Catherine Zeta-Jones

New Release Review

Playing For Keeps is the story of retired soccer player George (Butler) who is trying to reconnect with his 10 year old son, Lewis (Noah Lomax), by coaching his soccer team. George has had a string of unsuccessful business ventures and is hoping to become a sports broadcaster. However, he keeps getting distracted by some attractive soccer moms who are pursuing him with great interest!

I want to say up front that I won tickets to see this movie. It isn't one I would have usually gone to see but I was pleasantly surprised. Playing For Keeps isn't your typical romantic comedy and I think that's why I enjoyed it so much. It's about a man trying to have a real father-son relationship and he's learning how to be a parent through learning how to be an adult. 

Unfortunately there are some laughs to be had at the soccer-mom's expense: mostly at how desperate or transparent they are in their attraction to George. I understand that the soccer moms are there to show how the younger George would have handled groupies but it's sad that there wasn't a decent part for a woman. They're all defined by their relationship to George: ex-wife, desperate mom, lonely mom, sophisticated mom...you get the idea. It took away from my enjoyment of the movie a little, but the actresses played their parts so well considering what they were given. Jessica Biel as Stacie, George's ex-wife, is a particular stand out for me because she played a regular person so well. Stacie is a mom (we don't hear about her working outside the home) and she is very down-to-earth so Biel gives her just enough emotion to be interesting and sympathetic without being overly dramatic. 

Overall I enjoyed Playing For Keeps. It's just a nice story. There is conflict without the over-the-top drama that seems to be all the rage. I was actually worried at one point that it would turn into an episode of Real Housewives of Virginia but thankfully it didn't happen. There are enough laughs to sustain the comedy classification and enough romance to fit that category too, but there is a third element: restraint. The story doesn't try to out-do itself in the third act, which ultimately gives the audience a satisfactory ending without being too on the nose.