Movie Review - Playing For Keeps

 

Lewis: "Are you upset mom's getting married?"

 George: "Yeah, but Matt seems like a nice guy."

 Lewis: "I've decided I'm not going to call him dad."

- Playing For Keeps

 

   Over the weekend, The Wife and I were looking for a movie to watch before bed. We stumbled across Playing For Keeps on Netflix. Stumbled is the right work, as we'd never heard of it before. It's got Gerard Butler, Jessica Biel, Dennis Quaid, Uma Thurman, Catherine Zeta-Jones, to name a few. I saw that after it's $35m budget, it didn't do so well. Without seeing a trailer we put it on, as it got a good star rating from Netflix viewers.

   Now it should be known, that I love movies. I'm not hard to please, as I'm not looking for a life changing event. I'm just looking for a distraction for 2 hours. I can hear some of my fellow dad's saying "he's a man whore!", and "that's not what it really like!" Uh, who cares. Gerard Butler plays a retired soccer player (football to the rest of the world to us yanks). He's had a kid with Jessica Biel's character and has not been the best father. As he looks for work and reluctantly takes a coaching job for his son's team, there are some relationships that happen to mess things up. Hilarity ensues.

   The Wife and I ended up loving this movie for the message is sent that the interests of a child super cede our own desires. When we decide to bring a child into this world (or make decisions that produce a child), there is responsibility that comes with it. The acting was great and portrayed the story well in my eyes. I'm an emotional guy, and can tear up at a decent Hallmark commercial. This movie was no exception. When I see even an on-screen father, making the decision to be a better dad, I'm moved. I have my own son, and am trying to build my relationship with him every day.

   I played soccer for 10 years growing up, so that theme was not lost on my. Though it was late when the movie ended, I wanted to go kick the ball around with my boy immediately after. I'm not sure I would have ever seen it if it were not on Netflix, but it's worth viewing if anything I've written above interests you. I laughed a bunch of times and LOVED the scene of father and son practicing a little "footie" together in the rain.

   Ole-ole-ole-ole.....

 

J.