Theatrical Review of The Game Plan

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---

Maybe it´s a symptom of my critical senses softening in old age, but somewhere underneath the clichés and ABC Sports cameos, there´s a story about a father and daughter in "The Game Plan" which is genuine and honest. See, even though we know where the story is going from the very beginning-a record season, an injury, the inevitable return from said injury to lead team to victory-that knowledge lets us focus on what really matters: family. And that´s a theme every Disney live action and animated movie in history has excelled at-bringing people together despite the obstacles.

Joe Kingman (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) is quarterback of the fictional Boston Rebels football team. He´s led his team to all possible glory except the championship. He´s famous, rich and hosts the swankiest parties-swankiest in Disney PG fashion, of course-until a little girl shows up on his doorstep. Peyton (Madison Pettis) claims to be his daughter from a failed marriage. At first against the idea of a child living in his bachelor pad, "The King" learns to love her more than he loves himself . . . just in time for the complications to erupt.

"The Game Plan" is a deceptively simple movie. Watching Kingman and Peyton interact, you feel like you´ve seen all of their struggles before. We´ve heard precocious kids talking and scheming like they´re 30-year-olds. The cliché of "the big game" has been used to death in every conceivable medium. And the eventual resolution is nothing short of obvious. But something else happens while the film rolls: we find our attention and affection being sucked into the story. So when the plot hits all the requisite dramatic points, we don´t roll our eyes in disbelief; the theater gets dusty, instead, as a favorite critic tends to say.

It´s maddening, in a lot of ways, to be sucked into the film hook, line and sinker so easily despite knowing we´re being manipulated. The fact remains, though, that despite the clichés and kinda-sorta-laughable PG villain of the piece (Kyra Sedgwick doing all she can to be a slimy sports agent Disney style), we leave the theater feeling rejuvenated, fresh and hopeful. If the epitome of childishness can learn to love someone else as much as he loves himself, it gives hope to the rest of the world.

At least it did for me. Again, I freely acknowledge the faults of the film--and there are many. Most of them start with "The Game Plan" being made by Disney and carrying a PG rating. How can a real athlete obsessed with himself be portrayed if there are no four letter words or blatant sexual escapades on screen? (Grated, those are stereotypes, but run with me on that, would you?) Disney is perhaps the perfect studio to make any sports movies as long as they keep ESPN under their corporate umbrella. For the pure sports fans out there, there´s cameo after cameo by anchors and announcers: Stuart Scott, Marc Albert, Boomer Esiason, Jim Gray, Steve Levy and probably more in a press conference scene. They lend authenticity to the production, though it almost becomes a game, too. Spot the anchor!

Then there´s the script, which we´ve already identified as cliché-filled and terribly obvious. More than those two things, it makes the characters act in ways they have no business acting in. Peyton, for instance, an 8-year-old child, verbally faces off with her father, the towering Rock. She says he´s childish and can´t love anyone but himself; he yells back a retort, completely forgetting the fact no adult should be engaged in a verbal pissing contest with a child like this.

Peyton, as adorable as she is, also tends to act 18 instead of 8. She changes ballet school plans, lies to Kingman, knows all about paternity tests and lies with the best gambler, yet "forgets" in the crucial dramatic scene she´s allergic to nuts. Seriously? If the script is going to make a character smart, keep her smart. But don´t arbitrarily change her IQ to fit the plot.

I walked out of "The Game Plan" thinking the film was just one thing: cute. It has a heart, it´s lovingly produced and is perfect entertainment for the entire family. All of the jokes come from Peyton and Joe learning to live together. A clip played in the trailers involving Joe´s allergy to cinnamon is amusing even though it´s nearly beaten to death. The QB´s turn as an enchanted tree in a ballet production-and the subsequent team cry fest over it-could only have been done in a Disney movie without the audience rolling their collective eyes.

This is really a film with dueling themes: the first about family we´ve covered and another about money. Specifically, it´s not money which brings happiness, it´s love. Another clichéd story element to be sure and one which could conceivably have been left out of the film altogether, considering how menacing Sedgwick´s Stella Peck turns out to be. She´s a typical Disney mustache twirling villain without an honest mustache twirling scheme. She just wants money for Joe and, through commission, for herself. Everything Stella does relates to endorsements which, honestly, turns into a joke halfway through the film. It´s fine if the man has a different girl in every city, but can´t have a child he never knew about? Maybe it´s a sly tweak of popular culture; I´d venture to say it´s more of a coincidence the film nearly subliminally mentions that fact.

The Rock sheds his tough guy image by letting himself be emotional over a plot point late in the film. He´s sensitive with his daughter, yet still has the chops to make his team respect him. Just imagine what would happen if any of the guys saw him singing Elvis tunes to her in an attempt to say "I´m sorry." Sometimes his acting is too far over the top and clueless for Joe´s own good-seriously, Joe, what kind of mother drops her daughter off with a father she doesn´t know and GOES TO AFRICA? But his cluelessness isn´t born out of malice; he genuinely doesn´t think anything fishy is going on.

In any event, I´m going to surprise myself and everyone else by giving "The Game Plan" a 6 out of 10. I´ve mentioned all the places it stumbles, yet I still find myself liking it. No pretensions, no agenda, no egos, just an enjoyable time in the theater for all age groups. You can´t expect anything else from the movie aside from how I´ve already described it: cute.

---

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---