.
Gerard Butler plays the father figure irresistible to women in the poorly received Playing For Keeps.
ROMANTIC comedies are like scones. There is a formula, a basic recipe if you will. It’s difficult to go wrong: add a few raisins or dates, or top it with cheese to make it interesting – that’s pretty much what the classic Hollywood genre needs to appear new and inviting to audiences around the world.
These films are predictable but still enjoyable to those who like them, but somehow the simple narrative of Playing for Keeps takes too many tangents and misses too many conventional queues to get it right.
It’s the story of a former soccer star George Dryer, who has fallen on tough times but has realised that he needs to strike up a relationship with his son.
He ends up coaching the local soccer team that his son plays on and having to deal with all the parents involved. In the meantime he also realises that he still loves his ex-wife, Stacie, and wants to stop her from marrying someone else.
Romance fails to ignite between the leads, Gerard Butler and Jessica Biel.
Butler gets plenty of screen time and is a stellar actor – in fact, the film showcases his talents as a romantic lead – but Biel has one or two crucial lines, set to move the narrative forward, that she delivers with little real emotion.
Further, she is cast across starlets the likes of Catherine Zeta-Jones and Uma Thurman, who positively sparkle in front of the camera.
What an error to have cast Biel opposite them as the woman Butler’s character would prefer. Her acting skills are just not on par and plain-faced. She looks more like Pocahontas than the innocent first love of our leading man.
A romantic comedy without any chemistry is fatally flawed.
Then there’s the issue of comedy and soccer which the film is meant to centre on.
Little screen time is given to the kids who have all the potential for comedic comment about their weird moms and dads. The audience isn’t given the chance to get a good sense of Butler as the amazing coach he is meant to be. The plot is far too concerned with the soccer moms who want to bed him.
Humour is thus often injected by auxiliary characters such as Butler’s landlord or the sales people in the bridal shop, where Stacie is fitted for a wedding dress. Because these characters are so external to the narrative, the jokes seem forced.
In fact, even in terms of narrative, so little happens that it is all crammed into the last few minutes of the movie in a kind of summary.
What a disappointment from director Gabriele Muccino and for Butler who appears to be on a losing streak. OMESHNIE NAIDOO
