If the idea of a close-up on Andy Griffith’s face while he has a loud and enthusiastic orgasm makes you wince, you should avoid Play the Game. In fact, unless you are aching to see Matlock/the Sheriff of Mayberry getting horizontal with Liz Sheridan (best known as Jerry’s mom on Seinfeld) followed by the big O, you should avoid Play the Game. I would be happy to see a more dignified look at romance between fine actors in their eighties. But Play the Game suffers from poor directing and even worse writing, and four excellent lead performances cannot save it.

Grandpa Joe (Andy Griffith) has been feeling down since his wife died a few years ago.  His grandson David (Paul Campbell) gives him pointers about meeting women. He dispenses such sage advice as, “If you want to meet women, go to where the women meet.” To Joe, this means waiting outside a ladies room. David uses the same techniques on women that he uses on the customers at his father’s car dealership. He thinks human interactions are a game, and seems to frequently get the woman and the sale. He pretends a car is already sold to someone important and engineers situations so that women spill drinks on him. He lies to the women he pursues. But then David meets Julie (Marla Sokoloff), and it might be love. Of course, none of David’s techniques seem to work.  Joe is having better luck at the retirement home. Edna (Liz Sheridan) gets hot and heavy with Joe, but he has his eye on Julie’s grandma Rose (Doris Roberts). Will true love win in the end?

Andy Griffith makes this movie almost bearable, despite some cringe inducing lines. When his grandson asks him if he still can have sex (and that is not even the cringe inducing part) Joe says, “Oh that thing died years ago. I might as well have it amputated.” Griffith has loads of screen time, and after his small but effective role in Waitress, it is fun to see him in a lead role. Liz Sheridan is hilarious as Edna slips Viagra into Joe’s drink and dons a slinky red nightgown.  The flirting between Joe and Rose is sweet and not as appalling as the rest of the film. Doris Roberts looks great and is lively, but dignified. All three actors attack the poor material with gusto, humor and without a hint of self consciousness, and I liked seeing talented older actors on the screen. The problem is the material.

Screenwriter/director Feinberg wants us to believe that older people know nothing about sex. For example, Joe expresses shock when Edna performs oral sex on him. (Yes, I am cringing as I put Andy Griffith, Seinfeld’s mom and oral sex in the same sentence.) Joe also asks Edna if she is on birth control. Perhaps it is comforting for some to believe that as we age, we regain our innocence, but these characters (and actors) deserve to be treated with more dignity. Even worse, once Joe becomes sexually active, he starts to behave like a fifteen year old. The nice man who lamented his lack of companionship and talked about holding hands for hours with his wife, the one true love of his live, now tells his grandson that his wife really did not know what she was doing in bed. I would have been much more interested in seeing a serious romance between these three actors.

I have enjoyed Marla Sokoloff’s work since her role in The Practice, and it is a nice change to see the funny and likable actress in a lead role instead of one of the usual Hollywood suspects.  Paul Campbell’s performance is a little creepy and not very compelling, and I had trouble buying him as a chick magnet. When he offers to help his grandfather meet women, Joe says to David, “You’re gonna help me? Who is gonna help you?” The romance between David and Julie is somewhat predictable.  He likes her, she wants to be just friends, or so she says. Their romance is not as interesting as the one between their grandparents could be.

There is a nice twist in the last few minutes of the film, but it is not enough. The message of the film seems to be that relationships, young and old, require games.  If you make it through the entire film, and stay after the credits, you get to see the Andy Griffith orgasm scene again. This time he falls asleep immediately after. Who can blame him? 

Play the Game.  Directed by Marc Fienberg.   Paul Campbell (David Mitchell), Andy Griffith (Grandpa Joe), Doris Roberts (Rose Sherman), Marla Sokoloff(Julie Larabee), Liz Sheridan(Edna Gordon) and Clint Howard (Dick).  Slowhand Cinema Releasing, 2009.

 

Gail sees a movie appears every Wednesday.

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