Playing for Keeps

Gerard Butler is one of the producers of this film and also plays the lead character, George, an ex-soccer player falling on more desperate times while trying to re-connect with his ex-wife.

George has trouble paying his rent and his own soccer memorabilia doesn't fetch much on the resale market. During his son Lewis' soccer game, he notices the coach is distracted and not very good, and takes it upon himself to teach the team a few things. The parents notice this and ask him to be coach. George's ex wife Stacie (Jessica Biel) is about to be remarried, but George still wants her back. At first he coaches the kids' team in order to get closer back to her, but she warns him that it better be for his son's sake, and not some misguided attempt to woo her back.

Meanwhile, three soccer moms vie for his attention. The married Patty is a desperate housewife whose husband throws money around and suspects her of infidelity when he is doing the same (Uma Thurman, Dennis Quaid). Barb is divorced and depressed (Judy Greer). Denise is a sportscaster who uses her industry connections to help George get a potential sportscasting job with ESPN (Catherine Zeta-Jones). While George at first welcomes the romantic and sexual advances, he becomes a bit more mature and tries harder to work on himself and his relationship with his son Lewis, as well as with Stacie. There is some comic relief with George's landlord (Iqbal Theba) as he asks for the rent money and sees the women come and go from George's house.

The writing is not very inspired, but the dramatic storyline with Jessica Biel's character was decently realized.  I could have done without the more comic and sexualized storylines involving the desperate housewives, as it felt a bit like two different movies and the three actresses' characters were pretty lame stereotypes and I don't think were very positive portrayals. It was Jessica Biel who had the best performance and I give the movie extra points to allow her not to appear glamorized and instead look like an actual average woman and mom.  The film also allows Butler to use his natural accent and charm while allowing George not to remain a jerk or womanizer.

I wished the movie would have a more mature film ending (having George leave and allow Stacie to move on) rather than the happy ending, but the performances by Biel and Butler were decent. It brings up some minor threads that are not realized, such as why Stacie would fall for George in the first place, other than attraction.  Uma Thurman and Catherine Zeta-Jones are pretty much character actresses nowadays, playing types that don't help to dispel the desperate housewife image.