Review of Playing for Keeps (2012) by Douglas L — 08 Dec 2012

Playing for Keeps had the potential to pull off a successful comedy. With Butler's success in other romantic comedies like The Ugly Truth, it showed promise. With a star studded cast; Catherine Zeta-Jones, Judy Greer, Uma Thurman, Gerard Butler, Jessica Biel, Dennis Quaid, amongst others. You think it would be comedic gold - especially this time of year when it's supposed to be high quality Oscar contenders - but unfortunately "Playing for Keeps" falls short.

It follows a former sports star (Gerard Butler) who's fallen on hard times and decides to start coaching his son's soccer team as a way to get his life together. His attempts to become an adult are met with challenges from the attractive soccer moms who pursue him at every turn.

The overall film is flat, unfunny and almost torturous to sit through. It is truly baffling that all the talented acclaimed actors involved actually read this script and then agreed to devote their time to something so bland. It's unfortunate to say that all of the characters have no depth or energy. It's so bad you really have no emotional investment in the story which makes it very easy to fall asleep and frankly care less about whatever garbage is happening on screen.

If the acting wasn't bad enough the story doesn't help. It's incredibly flimsy to begin with so it made no sense when they decided to make things more complicated by adding an even more pointless subplot in which George aspires to be a sports anchor and magically gets a job on ESPN as an analyst (just after one interview) despite having zero on-air experience, but hey, that's the magic of film right?

This is not entirely surprising, given that director Gabriele Muccino's previous American credits include two terrible Will Smith dramas, (The Pursuit of Happiness and Seven Pounds.) It comes down to the fact that Muccino simply doesn't know how to fix the script or manage his actors, which in turn creates garbage as the end result.

I guess the real question is why is Playing for Keeps being released in the heart of awards season rather than awaiting the wasteland of February or March? Never the less this film is forgettable and not worth the time which is why I'm giving Playing for Keeps a 2/10.

@TheFelixKay.