I won't say that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has talented acting or comedic timing down pat. I can't do it. My sense of honor won't allow me to so perjure myself before the distinguished courts of JPP review readers. But I will say this: for what it's worth, he has a very expressive face. Now, it's the expressive nature of said face that lends any comedic value to Game Plan whatsoever. The ability of that man to contort his face into expressions of despair, anger, joy and laughter only to revert back to the patented "Can you smell what the Rock is cooking"-look-of-doom provides most, if any, laughs for the film's duration. That last sentence was a bit lengthy...but it makes sense.
Your typical "fish out of water" scenario receives a slight twist in that Joe Kingman (The Rock) suddenly finds himself in deeper water than he's used to when his daughter Peyton, that he never knew existed, lands on his front doorstep. The movie touches only briefly on explaining how Peyton managed to sneak away before plunging into the hour and a half romp of a man's man dealing with the sudden injection of estrogen into his world. With an enlarged picture of himself covering an entire wall of his apartment, a remote that turns his apartment into a Quagmire-esque love-den and designer furniture that no man, woman, child or animal could ever find comfortable - Joe Kingman, the quarterback for the Boston Rebels, doesn't have any room for a child in his life.
So, as can be expected, the audience watches as the girl wins her way into his heart through a series of messes, emasculation and humiliation for the quarterback. While the father-daughter moments are intentionally sappy, the relationship between Kingman and teammate Travis Sanders (played well by Morris Chestnut) gives the film an unexpected amount of male bonding-related emotion.
The laughs never really reach comedic gold but the stars do manage to mine some moments of laughter. Watching the Rock prance about as a magical tree wearing a leotard is worth a few laughs - but only a few. Don't go overboard. Using the 90s supertoy "The Bedazzler" as the brunt of half the movie's jokes The Game Plan seems like it could have used a few more comedic inspirations.
Considering where he's coming from, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson performs formidably in a family comedy that manages to save itself some dignity. See the Pacifier if you want an example of an action star (Vin Diesel) struggling to stay afloat in a sinking ship of a family comedy. Director Andy Fickman managed to coax a decent performance out of the Rock and for that I'm satisfied. It's a kiddie movie, my expectations for actor greatness aren't so high.
Youngin' Madison Pettis does rather well when it comes to line delivery. It seems the tyke has a good head for comedic delivery as she hits most of her lines dead on. I was rather impressed by her performance - even though she suffers many of the pitfalls of child actors/actresses.
Kyra Sedgwick plays the over-ambitious agent to Joe Kingman, and while she was supposed to fall somewhere in between slapstick relief and bitchy foil, usually she was just annoying as hell. Which may also have been the point of her character...I'm not sure.
Finally, we come to the love interest of the film. The Game Plan doesn't try to tackle the same old "daughter attempts to reunite estranged parents" plotline - for which I am very grateful. I've had enough Parent Trap scenarios to last me a lifetime - in the case of Parent Trap the proper joke would be twin lifetimes that didn't know they had identical lifetime twins. Instead the love interest is the next step down on the cliché ladder as Joe Kingman finds himself falling for Peyton's ballet instructor as played by Roselyn Sanchez. Damn she's beautiful, and dressing her up in revealing leotards and prancing her about the stage only adds to that effect. Compared to the floozies we see Joe chasing in the opening moments of the movie, Sanchez exposes Kingman to a woman who thinks for herself and has a backbone. Yadda Yadda.
The Game Plan doesn't break any family film boundaries but it offers a solid 110 minutes of family fun that I guess you could say the whole family will enjoy. I know, I know - it sounds trite, but it's true. Parents and children will enjoy the variety of levels the film provides comedy-wise.
By the way...the Rock has a crappy singing voice. I don't know if that was intentional, but his Elvis impersonation needs serious work.
"The Game Plan" opens September 28, 2007 and is rated PG. Children & Family, Comedy. Directed by Andy Fickman. Written by Nichole Millard, Kathryn Price. Starring Dwayne Johnson, Kyra Sedgwick, Madison Pettis, Morris Chestnut, Roselyn Sanchez.
