Joe Kingman (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) is a star football player for the Boston Rebels. He has led a full career and everything has gone perfectly for him, except, of course, for the coveted championship ring. He has everything he wants, an expensive apartment filled with trophies, gadgets and a ton of Elvis memorabilia. He throws parties where women fawn over him and he is even getting ready to start up a new bar.
Of course, all that gets thrown into the air when a "cute young lady" appears on his doorstep, an eight year-old girl named Peyton (Madison Pettis) who claims to be his daughter. It seems that her mother (Kingman's ex-wife) is off to Africa to help a third-world country, and Peyton begged to be dropped off at her father's house so she could get to know him. After bringing his PR manager, Stella (Kyra Sedgwick), in on the issue, it is decided that having the girl around is better press than shuffling her off to some other family member.
Unfortunately for both Peyton and Kingman's public image, it becomes apparent really quickly that he has no experience in fatherhood when he forgets Peyton at the bar he has just opened during the grand opening party. After the press' field day, Stella starts to question their decision, but Joe soon starts to turn things around, and while he still has a lot of problems getting used to the situation, he starts to make serious efforts. He trades his sleek sportscar in for a station wagon, enrolls his daughter into a ballet school (upon her extreme insistence) and even buys her a bed so he doesn't have to sleep on his couch for the rest of the month-long visit.
The aforementioned ballet lessons play a major part in the movie, because the viewer finds out fairly early that Peyton's story isn't quite as on the up and up as she made it seem. After a few hushed phone calls, we find that Peyton is actually supposed to be at a ballet school and she did some fancy ticket swapping to get herself to Boston. Besides this, Joe starts to fall for the ballet teacher, Monique (Roselyn Sanchez, Without a Trace), who, to Joe's surprise, doesn't actually know who he is. I'll just say, this particular plotline ends with The Rock in tights and dancing in a recital.
One of the most noticeable aspects about this movie is how Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has physically changed. Ever since his role in Be Cool, I have been amazed by his much more slimmed down look. I find it to be better for him and, quite frankly, more natural feeling. While he isn't the hulking muscular character he was back in his wrestling days or when he played in The Scorpion King, he is still very solid and much more looks the part of a quarterback.
Included on The Gameplan DVD are two ESPN SportsCenter features, one the full video from the biography created for the movie that appears early in the film, and another that shows The Rock learning how to play a quarterback. Both are entertaining.
Like I said, I enjoyed The Gameplan and while I was sure I would find parts of it funny, I didn't know how much I would like the overall story and presentation, but this movie is definitely worth a rental.
