I
went into Playing for Keeps with no previous knowledge. I had not seen the
trailer, and had no idea what type of film it was. All I knew was the cast of
actors, and the cover of the film shows two leading men and four leading
ladies, so it was unclear to me if this was an ensemble romance or if there was
one special couple amongst those six actors. At a certain point during the
beginning of the film, I though this might not even be a romantic comedy at
all; I imagined it to be a father/son bonding film, perhaps through the love of
soccer. But this is a romantic comedy, just one which is poorly constructed and
defectively conceived.
Gerard
Butler has had a string of bad romantic comedies, but at least the others with
a little less chaotic. There is a cast of actors involved in this film, all of
whom seem to be giving it their all to be humorous. They very bravely go
over-the-top and without any apparent guidance or restraint from the director.
The one thing this film seems sorely lacking is direction, which is perhaps why
it is so unclear what we are supposed to be rooting for. Much of the film had
me cringing. I felt bad for the actors involved.
Butler
stars as a piece of man-meat who was once a soccer star, but now he just
provides opportunities for gorgeous, desperate soccer moms who throw themselves
at him when he starts coaching his son’s team. This coaching takes up very
little screen time, though it introduces most of the extraneous characters,
from fast-talking soccer dad (Dennis Quaid) to a slew of moms (Catherine
Zeta-Jones, Uma Thurman, and Judy Greer). Jessica Biel also stars as the mother
of our protagonist’s son, though her character is rather two-dimensional.
The
Blu-ray includes deleted scenes, a featurette about the casting and a making-of
feature.
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