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Movie review: Game Plan
BY MAGGIE SCOTT
Joe “The King” Kingman (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) needs nothing but a ring on his finger to make his life complete. A ring, that is, from the National Football League.
As superstar quarterback for the Boston Rebels, Joe acts like the world’s happiest man, until he throws something at his plasma screen watching an ESPN special called, “A King in Search of a Ring.” Selfish is how the program’s host sees Joe, and that’s why he hasn’t been able to take his team all the way over the championship goal line. What’s missing?
Could Joe need a lesson in what’s really important in life? The “Game Plan” is the Disney Studio’s formula for a happy life, and it couldn’t have two more amazing pitchmen than “The Rock” and his co-star, the beyond-adorable Maddison Pettis as eight-year-old Peyton. Shirley Temple’s got nothing on this girl.
Peyton takes eye-batting to a whole new level, and her comic timing and way with words couldn’t be better if they were coming not from her pint-size personality, but were computer-generated. Joe doesn’t see the sack coming when Peyton arrives on his doorstep one day, insisting he’s her father.
After some puzzled denial, Joe buys into Peyton’s story that her mother has gone to Africa for a month, and it’s the perfect time to get acquainted with Dad. With more good nature than would seem to be conceivable with a mortal man, Joe integrates Peyton with a few slip ups here and there into his life.
Nothing escapes her notice, and she makes the call like a seasoned ref when she sees something Joe needs to fix about himself. Everyone but Joe’s agent (Kyra Sedgewick) takes a shine to Peyton.
A lot of money is at stake if Joe doesn’t keep his eye on the endorsement deal end zone. But, Joe is bit by bit taking a shine to this fatherhood thing, and it looks like it might be softening him up. From nail polish on his pet bulldog to sparkles pasted on his MVP football, Joe realizes that he’s “joined the dad team and is still learning the playbook.”
What makes the story so special is that Nichole Millard and Kathryn Price’s script provides more than a few challenges for “man card”- carrying males to the status quo hallmarks of masculinity. Sometimes subtle, sometimes not, these good-natured and humorous jabs at macho facades add extra yardage to this charming winner. Rated PG for mild thematic elements.
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