Movie review: 'The Game Plan'

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2 stars (out of four)

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson’s fame was built on his professional wrestling career, raising "The People’s Eyebrow," calling out posers and spouting his signature tagline: "Can you smell what The Rock is cooking?" These days, after muscle-flexing turns as an ancient Egyptian king and a tough small town sheriff, Johnson’s being served up in "The Game Plan" as the most recent Disney-fied behemoth (see Vin Diesel, "The Pacifier").

It’s the story of misogynistic professional quarterback Joe "The King" Kingman (Johnson), whose world turns upside down with the arrival of the daughter he didn’t know about, Peyton (Madison Pettis). The King must balance the stresses of child care with the demands of his team’s playoff surge.

The role poses an interesting challenge, and not only because QBs typically don’t come with such over-muscled arms. As written, the King doesn’t have the appeal to rally an audience or to sell the developing relationship at the heart of "The Game Plan." Without the audience’s affection for the Rock, the film would flop from the lack of character and plot development.

For example, the King accepts his daughter as being his own too easily (scoffing at a paternity test because it requires taking blood; this is a professional athlete?). He doesn’t warm up to her until, after an argument, she reminds him of her mother; unfortunately, by this point most of the film has passed. The exposition is full of getting-to-know-you moments-Peyton feeding him cinnamon cookies, causing an allergic reaction and forcing him to talk like a cartoon character; Peyton turning on the blender without its cap and making a mess; Peyton bedazzling everything in sight-all presented as a series of gags. What’s missing is the learning process, the buildup to sell the King’s "duh" moment. He needs to transform over time, not in an instant.

Pettis proves adorable in her major motion picture debut, adding the compassion the story lacks most of the time. Kyra Sedgwick plays the evil-stepmother role in the form of the King’s agent. Her intentions to have her client sell his soul for endorsement deals are balanced by the King’s star receiver, Sanders (Morris Chestnut), whose few-and-far-between scenes provide the King’s with a family-values moral compass.

While the first three quarters of the film prove forgettable, "The Game Plan" rallies in the fourth quarter, when Johnson is able to sell his character’s love for his daughter. It’s hard not to like duality of the Rock and a cute little kid. You can smell what the Rock is cooking, and while the entree isn’t too aromatic, the sweet smell of dessert makes up for it.

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