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Playing for Keeps | 2012 | PG-13 | - 5.3.4

A former professional soccer star (Gerard Butler) returns home to Virginia, divorced and financially ruined. He attempts to build a new life with his young son (Noah Lomax) but when he begins coaching the junior soccer team, he is distracted by aggressive soccer moms and a wheedling soccer dad (Dennis Quaid). Also with Jessica Biel, Uma Thurman and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Directed by Gabriele Muccino. [1:46]

SEX/NUDITY 5 - A woman invites herself into a male friend's apartment, she pulls up her dating profile on the Internet, says she is going to start dating again and asks him what he thinks of the profile; he says he would call her if he were a stranger and read it, the woman leaves the apartment, but returns, embraces him, pushes him against a wall and kisses him (sex is implied and we see the man the next morning and he is bare-chested lying in bed alone, covered from the waist-down by a sheet while a note next to him says, "Thanks for breaking my slump").
 A female former sportscaster brings a man to a recording studio to practice for an audition and afterward she sits close to him and asks him whether she is a distraction or an inspiration and when he hesitates to answer she jumps into his arms, wrapping her legs around him while saying that she only wants some laughs (the scene ends and sex is implied); the next day at a soccer game, she tells him that whenever she pulls on her right ear lobe, she is thinking of him on top of her, kisses him and during the game, she pulls her ear lobe once and he looks away.
 A woman lies in a bed, wearing a black bra (that reveals a lot of cleavage), a skirt, black tights and black heels and she calls a man on his cell phone to tell him that she is waiting for him in his bed and he tells her that she is in the landlord's house (she gasps and tiptoes across the driveway to another apartment); the man enters the apartment, finds the woman sitting on his bed, she strips off her blouse, skirt and tights to reveal bra and panties (we see a significant amount of cleavage, abdomen, partial buttocks and bare legs) and the man tells her to leave, but she locks herself in the bathroom and cries (we later see the woman sneaking out a side door, fully dressed).
 We see a man wearing a large towel wrapped around his waist and extending below the frame, revealing his bare chest, shoulders, arms, abdomen and back. A few women sitting in sports bleachers wear low-cut tops that reveal cleavage. A woman wears a short skirt that reveals most of her bare legs to the thigh. A woman wears a tube top that reveals cleavage.
 A woman in a store is trying on a wedding gown (no cleavage is seen); her ex-husband walks in, they speak about their past relationship, she cries, he follows her to her car, they talk and she embraces, kisses him and then agrees to reunite with him. A 9-year-old boy becomes angry when he sees a woman other than his mother kiss his father briefly, even though his parents are divorced. A man tells his ex-wife that she is the only one he has ever loved, and she tells him that if he came back to town for her he is wasting their time; later at his home, he tries to kiss her and she cries and leaves but he walks out to her car and says they she need not go (she cries and drives away).
 A man at a party tells a male guest that he is having sex regularly with one of the female guests that is not his wife; his wife walks up, the husband leaves to speak to someone else, and she asks the male guest if he knows with whom her husband is having sex and the guest denies knowing. A woman tells a male coach that she is getting divorced, and cries and hugs the coach. A man says that he always has his wife followed and photographed because he will not lose her to another man; however, he has never caught her with another man. A woman finds photos of her friend's half-dressed wife sitting on her ex-husband's bed; he says, "It's not what it looks like" and she tells him goodbye.
 A woman drives up to a man's apartment; he walks out to meet her at her car where she tells him of a job offer for him and suggests they have sex as a thank you; he says he cannot do this causal relationship anymore because he has a young son and that he himself must grow up to which she replies, "You don't know what you're missing." Several male sports announcers laugh as another man describes a former soccer star as one who "had more [anatomical term deleted] than a toilet seat," suggesting frequent sex. A husband and his wife argue at a soccer game about whether the coach is attractive; the wife reluctantly admits that the coach is attractive. A man says he wonders if he could get a date from the Internet while sitting around in boxers. A Scottish man's Indian landlord asks, "How do you get so many beautiful women?" and the Scotsman says, "It must be the accent" and the landlord looks wistfully at a woman getting into a car across the street and says, "I have an accent, too"; a few days later, the landlord has a date with a woman at a soccer game and seeing the Scotsman tells him with a smile, "It's the accent." We hear that a woman called off her wedding, because she is still in love with her ex-husband; her fiancé asked her, "Do you still love him?" and she cried and replied, "I never stopped." A man asks his young son if he has a girlfriend; the boy says no and the dad says he needs to fix the boy up with someone. A young boy tells his father that his mother (the man's ex-wife) is being remarried and the man looks surprised. A young boy asks his father if he is sad about the remarriage of his ex-wife and the man says that he is.

VIOLENCE/GORE 3 - A man approaches another man with an envelope of photos of the first man's wife; we see the woman sitting on a bed in the second man's apartment and wearing a bra and a skirt (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details); the second man accuses the first man of seducing the woman, but the second man denies any sexual contact as the first man pushes the second man and a pushing match begins (the two men fall to the ground unharmed).
 A man lets his young son drive a Ferrari while sitting on the man's lap; they drive fast and slide off the road onto a dirt turn-off beside a pond, but they are unharmed and the man's ex-wife later tells the man that the event was irresponsible. A man and a boy practice soccer in a heavy rainstorm (neither is harmed).
 Several scenes feature loud cheering and shouting from soccer parents in bleachers at games and practices: In one scene, a clumsy coach accidentally hits a girl in the face with a clipboard, but she is uninjured; in another scene, a soccer dad begins a pushing match with a coach until they grab each other and fall to the ground, wrestling and one of the boys shouts, "Pile on!" as a whole team of kids falls on top of the two men (no one is hurt).
 A man and his young son argue after the boy pushes an opponent to the ground during a soccer game; the boy shouts, "I hate soccer and I hate you!" At midnight on a street, a man accidentally hits the wrong button on his key chain, setting off his car alarms and waking some residents, who tell him it is after midnight and to be quieter. A man and his son watch a monster movie on TV (monsters are covered with fake blood and people screaming and they both laugh).
 A man calls a male friend from the local jail asking for help, explaining that he punched another man at a party for looking at his wife; later, he says that he would never lose his wife to a living man, suggesting he'd kill a man who would try to take away her away. A boy says forcefully that his soccer team "bites" and his dad says, "That sucks." A man and his landlord argue several times about payment of a security deposit, until the man finally pays. At a soccer practice, we hear that a little girl's sister died, and a boy's grandfather died of cancer due to smoking. A boy says that there is something about his father that makes his mother cry every night. A boy wakes up from a nightmare and tells his father that he dreamed of playing soccer, but looked down and saw he had no feet. A man and a woman in a seafood restaurant smash pieces of crab loudly with wooden hammers. A mom leaves a voicemail for a soccer coach that her constipated son should not run. A mom leaves a message that her son is ADHD, he took a hard shot to the testicles and should stay far away from the ball.

LANGUAGE 4 - 15 scatological terms, 2 anatomical terms, 12 mild obscenities, name-calling (crazy, stupid, baby, wankers), stereotypical references to professional athletes, children's coaches, playboys, the rich, men with foreign accents, divorced women, jealous husbands, soccer moms, children, absentee fathers, 2 religious profanities, 2 religious exclamations.

SUBSTANCE USE - A man drinks a bottle of beer alone at home, a house party features many men and women drinking cocktails and wine, a woman asks for a drink in a man's apartment and he pours her a whiskey that she drinks from, a woman invites herself into a man's apartment for a drink and they each drink a few sips from beer bottles before she leaves, a man offers a woman wine in his home and she declines, a woman drinks a man's mug of beer at lunch in a restaurant and he orders three more beers to counteract the spicy food, and we hear that a man once owned a bar and that it went out of business during the recession. A boy says that his grandfather died of cancer due to smoking.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Professional sports, family, parenting, relationships, love, regret, loss, reconciliation, responsibility, work, bribery, trust, maturity.

MESSAGE - There is joy in growing up, even when it's late.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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