Saturday, October 6, 2007
at
5:17 PM
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here’s nothing surprising about “The Game Plan,” in which a quarterback named Joe Kingman, played by Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson, learns to love the young daughter, Peyton (Madison Pettis), he never knew he had. But the movie is so likable that it glides over its many plot holes (including the fishy explanation of why Joe never knew about Peyton, and an 11th-hour revelation by the girl that’s even less persuasive). The film’s direction, by Andy Fickman, is raucous but never crass, and the affable Mr. Johnson is committed to every moment.
The screenplay, by Nichole Millard and Kathryn Price, establishes Joe as a man-boy who talks about himself in the third person and has a separate room for his trophies. Peyton puts a tutu on his bulldog, switches his television to a horse program during the final seconds of an N.B.A. game and insists on being enrolled in a ballet class.
The class yields a hint of romance for Joe (with Peyton’s elegant, tough teacher, played by Roselyn Sanchez). And it lets Mr. Fickman stage some lively sequences, including an endearing montage that cuts between ballet and football practice, and a dance recital in which Joe, who’s been pressed into service as a tree, plays his role with such sincerity that he brings his burly teammates in the audience to tears.
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