Playing For Keeps: Movie Review 2012

Hubby and I got the chance to attend a pre-screening for “Playing for Keeps” at Showplace in St. Louis Park tonight and I just had to write a little diddy about it. A really special thanks to Minnesota Mama’s Must Haves for sharing this on her Facebook page 🙂

First off, if you haven’t heard of this movie yet – where have you been? Just kidding, I think I had maybe seen a preview or two before we went to the movie tonight. But seriously, there should be more because people need to know about this movie!

The Cast

Oh my goodness. They picked the perfect cast, especially Gerard Butler, both me and hubby said how good he was in this movie, and really how good of an actor he is in general. But in this movie, he was wonderful as well. The rest of the cast includes:

• Jessica Biel
• Catherine Zeta Jones
• Dennis Quaid
• Judy Greer
• Uma Thurman
• Noah Lomax

The Story

I wasn’t originally sure how much I would truly enjoy this movie because I’m really not a soccer fan, and I knew that was kind of a growing theme in this movie. But actually, I loved it. The soccer team was part of the movie, but it wasn’t really a ‘part’ of the movie, if that makes sense. Anyways, George (Gerard Butler) and Stacie (Jessica Biel) were sweethearts when George was a soccer star back in the day. Now that career is over for him, and somewhere along the line, him and Stacie just didn’t work out; but there’s a catch. Their 9-year-old son, Lewis (Noah Lomax) who they both love dearly.

Gerard has to deal with constant battles such as lack of employment (and money), persistent women, his love for his son, and his unyielding love for Stacie. It builds to more than I can tell you without spoiling anything, but it’s not as obvious as you might think.

There were definitely parts where I laughed out loud, and then there were parts when I sobbed out loud (not really out loud, more tears, but ‘sobbed out loud’ sounded better, didn’t it?) The movie definitely played on my emotions, and I could definitely see if you had children around Lewis’ age, you would be bawling just like me. Hubby didn’t cry, but I know he was just torn on the inside.

Ruby Approved!

I would definitely recommend this movie, especially to families with kids around the 13-year-old mark. It is PG-13, and there was one scene where there is a woman with just her undergarments on. You should probably know this beforehand, just so you’re prepared if you do take your teens! It wasn’t anything big, and I’d actually forgotten about it until I noticed it was PG-13 just now 😉

Let me know if you’ve seen ‘Playing for Keeps’ or if you plan to go see it! I’d love to hear what you thought of it!!

Hearts,
Ruby