REVIEW: Playing for Keeps

Courtesy of FilmDistrict

I feel for Gerard Butler. The guy’s probably never going to win an Oscar, but he’s more talented than his long string of misfires would suggest. 300 was a long time ago, and the only good luck Butler’s had since is lending his voice to How to Train Your Dragon.

The actor can be great with the right material (I’ve often said he’s the best thing about a lot of terrible movies), but lately he seems to be stuck making lame chick flicks. His newest is Playing for Keeps, a so-called romantic comedy from director Gabriele Muccino and screenwriter Robbie Fox. The flick actually plays more like a drama, though it’s tough to tell if that was a deliberate choice.

As always, Butler is pretty good. But the rest of the cast’s talent is completely wasted on the poorly-written material. The characters are so clichéd and one-note that I wonder why anybody agreed to be in the flick (aside from the paycheck, of course).

Butler plays George, a former soccer star who is trying to get his life together and establish better relationships with his son (Noah Lomax) and ex-wife (Jessica Biel). He gets his chance when he’s pressured into coaching his son’s soccer team, but he’s continually thwarted by the intense soccer moms (including Judy Greer, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Uma Thurman) and absentee dads (Dennis Quaid) who are far more immature than his preteen players.

Muccino’s association with Playing for Keeps should have set off alarm bells and flashing red lights in my brain. His previous effort, Seven Pounds, is one of the worst movies I’ve seen since I started reviewing them. Still, I gave him the benefit of the doubt. Bad idea. After a few promising scenes, the flick deteriorates into a mess of unrealistic characterizations and “farcical” set pieces that a bad sitcom would consider hackneyed.

Biel does her best as the weary ex-wife, but the obvious age difference between she and Butler makes it hard to believe their characters’ previous relationship was as long-term as the script suggests. Zeta-Jones is okay in her go-to persona, but she’s barely onscreen long enough to register.

Quaid and Thurman get virtually nothing to do, so they make up for it by wildly overacting. Quaid’s practically checking his watch in every scene, and all I could do was seethe as Thurman – the woman who killed Bill, for crying out loud! – was reduced to writhing around in a push-up bra and begging Butler’s character to sleep with her.

But most of all, I hated this movie because of its treatment of poor Judy Greer. How many times does this woman have to prove she’s a phenomenal actress (she deserved an Oscar nomination for her work in The Descendants) before Hollywood stops relegating her to stock roles like the best friend or the sad, homely girl? Seriously, do a Google image search and then tell me in what world she’s unattractive. That may sound like an arbitrary issue, but it was honestly the point in the flick when I threw my hands up and said I was done.

Playing for Keeps is rated PG-13 for some sexual situations, language and a brief intense image.

Grade: D+