It Isn’t Whether You Win or Lose, It Is How You

The Golden Grouches is primarily an Oscar blog.  So naturally the movies we tend to advocate are the ones at least in the conversation for a gold statue.  If we get to champion little-seen movies, they are still little-seen movies receiving nominations.  But now we’re in the cold, dark off-season for the Academy.  You know, the place where comedies are allowed to exist.  So I’m returning to the huge pile of non-Oscar recaps I’ve sorely neglected, plus I have a few other ideas brewing.  To start things off, I’m very happy to report back on a non-Oscar little movie we were able to talk about, Play The Game.  You’ll be excused if you missed it, though it is has been out for three weeks, it has only played in Florida (though it is expanding to a theater in California).

The romantic comedy stars Paul Campbell (he’s Chief of Staff to the President on Battlestar Galactica, at least for the one season I’ve watched) as David, a master of persuasion, evidenced by his rampant success selling cars to people who don’t need them at the dealership owned by his father (Clint Howard),  and the number of women he’s bedded.  But he’s the heart of gold kind of romcom lothario, not the evil sort.  David had to drop out of school and work for his father (with whom he has an uneasy relationship) to pay for his Grandpa Joe’s (Andy Griffith) spot in a retirement community, once his grandmother passed away.  After his grandfather has been alone for a few years, David decides to fulfill a promise made to his grandmother to help Grandpa Joe find someone new.

As David teaches his grandfather how to get back into the world of dating, he finds himself falling for Julie (Marla Sokoloff).  But all his tricks, so effective with the various floozies he picked up in bars, bear no fruit when applied to Julie, and he finds himself stuck being her friend.  Meanwhile, Grandpa Joe has great success picking up one woman (Liz Sheridan) and struggles a bit more with another (Doris Roberts).  Geoffrey Owens (Elvin on The Cosby Show!) is also in the film as David’s best friend, Rob.