Three stars. Rating: PG-13, for profanity and sexual candor
By Derrick Bang
Former soccer star George Dryer,
stalled in the well-worn rut of an arrested adolescent, can’t figure out what
to be when he grows up.
The same can be said of this
film.
 |
| An echo of happier times: Young Lewis (Noah Lomax, center) is delighted to see that his divorced parents, Stacie (Jessica Biel) and George (Gerard Butler), still seem to enjoy each other's company. And, yes, George definitely is trying to woo Stacie back ... although she insists that would be a waste of time. |
Rarely have so many top-flight
supporting actors been handed such poorly defined roles, and given nothing to
do with them. Robbie Fox’s screenplay is a mess; even when the dialogue
occasionally sparkles, and genuine chemistry ignites as it should in a romantic
comedy, a moment’s thought reveals that logic and continuity are all over the
map, if not absent entirely.
We probably shouldn’t expect
more; Fox made his Hollywood rep in the early 1990s with low-low-lowbrow Mike
Myers and Pauly Shore comedies such as So I Married an Axe Murderer and In
the Army Now. Following the latter, Fox went off the grid for almost two
decades until reappearing with Playing for Keeps.
Perhaps he should have waited
longer, to further refine his craft.
In fairness, though, Fox can
shoulder only part of the blame. Director Gabriele Muccino is equally at fault,
bringing little to this party beyond some solid father/son scenes between
Gerard Butler and Noah Lomax.
After establishing a solid
reputation in his native Italy, with well-received rom-coms such as 2001’s The
Last Kiss, Muccino made a splash in the States when he teamed with Will Smith
for 2006’s The Pursuit of Happyness. Their next project, however, was a
ghastly miscalculation; Seven Pounds was the coal in 2008’s Christmas
stocking, with its unsettling blend of fairy tale and real-world angst, all
building to a thoroughly unpleasant conclusion that was intended to be
uplifting.
Playing for Keeps has similar
problems. We want to like these characters, and we’re clearly intended to ...
but damn, it sure is difficult. Once again, Muccino’s desire for a sparkling
holiday cracker — he seems to like releasing his films in December — has
fizzled.
