Sometimes, it all comes together.
You’ve got the personnel. The things they’ve been known to do well, they do very well. The leadership is all on the same page. The execution? Nearly flawless.
Finally, for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, “The Game Plan” pays off. Cast as an egotistical pro quarterback who learns to put others first when he meets the little girl he never knew he had, The Rock scores in a family comedy that plays to his strengths, and Disney’s.
It’s not an ambitious script. But you’d never know that from the way The Rock hurls himself into it, embracing the silly, lampooning the vanity. As Joe “The King” Kingman, he dodges the pass rush and hits the open receiver. And he sings, he dances (in a leotard, kids!) and spikes the ball in the end zone.
He should. He’s earned it.
The quarterback of the Boston Rebels is “Number one on the field and number one in your hearts!” Sure he is. Just ask him.
Doesn’t matter if his great, humble receiver (Morris Chestnut) is wide open in the end zone, The King’s all about The King. He’ll take the ball himself. He’ll grin for the fans. He’ll hop into his sports car and drive to his showplace apartment, admire his Elvis collection and then hook up with his supermodel girlfriends.
Until Little Miss Sunshine shows up at his door. The product of a long-ago marriage (Disney cleans up pro athletes’ baby-in-every-town images, just like that), Peyton is the daughter he never knew he had.
Mom is off finding water for villages in Africa, Peyton says. She has come to stay with “Dad” for a month.
That means exactly what you’d expect, and hope for, in a Disney family comedy. The King’s inept parenting meets the irrepressible spunkiness of a ballet-dazzled little girl (Madison Pettis).
Accidents with the blender and bubble bath. Ballet lessons for the kid and a tutu for his pet bulldog.
Kyra Sedgwick is the frosty agent who tries to do damage control with the press on this stunning revelation about the prince of the city. Roselyn Sanchez (“Without a Trace”) is the sexy ballet teacher who demands “involvement” from the parents of her baby ballerinas.
Will The King, one of those superstars who has never won “a ring,” learn a little selflessness in time for “the big game”? Will father and daughter bond? Is there more to the story than little Peyton lets on?
Even if we know where it’s going, Disney fans can be excused for grinning ear to ear at how sweetly this “Game Plan” comes together.
“The Game Plan”
PG for mild thematic elements | 1 hour, 25 minutes | FAMILY COMEDY | Directed by Andy Fickman; written by Nichole Millard and Kathryn Price; photography by Greg Gardiner; starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Madison Pettis, Kyra Sedgwick, Roselyn Sanchez, Morris Chestnut | Opens today at area theaters.
