Playing for Keeps
FilmDistrict | Release Date: December 7, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
27
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
0
Mixed:
11
Negative:
15
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyDec 6, 2012
Though the script takes pains to paint George as a passive boy-man, there's just not enough lovable here and too much of the thoughtless lout. Butler beware: In acting as in soccer, if you keep taking dives, sooner or later you pay the penalty. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleDec 6, 2012
As a movie, it's not much. But it's the best showcase for his charm that Butler has ever had. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertDec 6, 2012
Jessica Biel all but steals the show as Stacie. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyDec 6, 2012
At some point you hope the actor (Butler) will find a movie that will give him the right material to make hearts truly beat faster. Until then, it appears we'll have to settle for films with more flaws than his characters. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliDec 6, 2012
A sloppy, poorly focused comedy. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyDarren FranichDec 7, 2012
The central question of the movie becomes: Can George triumph over his inability to stop hot women from throwing themselves at him? Read full review
40
The New York TimesA.O. ScottDec 6, 2012
Sometimes the movie swerves toward farce, sometimes into the zone of smiley family comedy and at other times into full-on weepiness. None of it is especially credible or engaging. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanDec 6, 2012
Perhaps, if this movie fails, studios will finally accept that we all deserve better. Biel knows it already, and Butler keeps up in their scenes together. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleLouis BlackDec 5, 2012
Watching this all-too-predictable romantic comedy/drama, my overwhelming thought was this: Given all the great filmmakers and film projects that can't find funding, how did this effort secure its reported $35 million for production? Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterStephen FarberNov 23, 2012
This is a good premise for a comedy, but somewhere along the way, it got diluted and turned into a sappy, feel-good story of family togetherness. Read full review
40
VarietyJustin ChangNov 23, 2012
A modestly affecting reconciliation drama wrapped in a so-so sports movie by way of a misogynistic romantic comedy, Playing for Keeps can't stop tripping all over itself. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsDec 7, 2012
Only Biel and Greer lift it above the level of bleh. Read full review
38
USA TodayClaudia PuigDec 6, 2012
The shenanigans of randy soccer moms and their obnoxious blowhard husbands are intended as comic relief. But the sappy plot of this formulaic romantic comedy is just as silly as its inane attempts at farce. Read full review
38
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyDec 6, 2012
This saga of a former soccer star coaching his son's team in order to worm his way back into the heart of his ex-wife aims to be warm and funny. Alas, it is mechanical and exhausting, like a windup toy of a monkey crashing together cymbals for 106 minutes while incrementally winding down. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisDec 6, 2012
This isn't a genre-less character study, it's myopic romantic comedy, and watching a woman of Catherine Zeta-Jones's easy carnality and fathomless beauty compete for the attention of Gerard Butler, who's pining for Jessica Biel, is dismaying, like spotting Anna Wintour in line at a soup kitchen. Read full review
30
Village VoiceMelissa AndersonDec 10, 2012
Yet it's not entirely forgettable. I'll long be haunted by Dennis Quaid's manic performance as a palm-greasing dad who seems to be under the influence of bath salts-tweaked-out acting that matches the camera movements. Read full review
30
NPRMark JenkinsDec 7, 2012
Style can be a risky thing in a movie like this, which aspires above all to inoffensiveness. Originally titled "Playing the Field," which was deemed too racy, this rom-com would have been more aptly renamed "Running Out the Clock." Read full review
30
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzDec 6, 2012
Simply put, it's a mess. Read full review
25
Washington PostAnn HornadayDec 6, 2012
A dreary, dismally unfunny excuse for a romantic comedy. Read full review
25
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezDec 6, 2012
There isn't a moment in the entire picture in which you will recognize an element of your own life. Read full review
20
Total FilmKen McIntyreJan 11, 2013
Playing For Keeps is awful – and not in a hilarious Ed Wood way. Read full review
20
Time OutA. A. DowdDec 11, 2012
Husbands and fathers, do not try this sh-- at home. Such "lovable" misbehavior is best left to the professional cads. Read full review
16
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasDec 6, 2012
The film is a bedroom farce without the farce, a fish-out-of-water comedy on sun-cracked lake-bed, a story of fatherly redemption that barely gets past the hair-mussing stage. Read full review
12
New York PostKyle SmithDec 7, 2012
One of those movies that comes "straight from the heart" - the heart of the hack screenwriter's manual that pushes formulaic structure to cover up a lack of compelling characters, genuine emotion or actual humor. Read full review
12
Slant MagazineEric HendersonDec 5, 2012
Gabriele Muccino's film is knee-deep in "don't hate the player, hate the game" territory. Read full review
0
Rolling StonePeter TraversDec 10, 2012
Just stay away. It's awful. Read full review
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