A Player and His Grandpa Trade Romantic Tips in Play the Game

David Mitchell is a player. He knows every trick in the book to get a girl to fall head over heels for him. He’s sly and persuasive, and the same tactics that make him an excellent car salesman serve him well in the dating arena. Love ‘em and leave ‘em is his style, and he has no qualms about the trail of heartbreak he leaves behind him. But David isn’t entirely heartless. He has a soft spot for his grandpa, an octogenarian named Joe, who lives in a nursing home and has been despondent since the death of his wife a couple of years earlier. When the two get together, David decides to show his grandpa the tools of his trade, thereby pulling him out of his depression and loneliness. In other words, he will teach him to Play the Game.

Marc Fienberg wrote and directed Play the Game, a mostly charming comedy about the importance of honesty in relationships. Paul Campbell is likable as David, even as some of his schemes aggravate, particularly since he’s mostly aiming for one-night stands with women who are hoping for more. That begins to change when he meets Julie Larabee (Marla Sokoloff), a vivacious young woman who doesn’t take any of his bait. They become friends, but David doesn’t understand why she isn’t falling for him like most girls do.

Meanwhile, his grandpa is having better luck, and Griffith is lovable as always as this man who is mostly a gentleman, but with a bit of a mischievous streak. While he tells David that all he wants is a platonic companion, his outlook changes a little when a feisty woman introduces him to some remarkable blue pills, and… Well, I love Andy Griffith, but I don’t really want to hear him expound upon the effects of that particular wonder drug.

So yes, the movie does get a little steamy at times, but mostly, it really is about companionship. It’s amusing to see David’s carefully laid plans backfire on him and to contemplate whether Julie is disinterested or playing a game of her own. It all gets pretty convoluted, and you’re left wondering how two people can ever connect with each other when they put so much effort into pretending they’re not interested. Joe’s inclination is to simply be up-front about his interest, a notion that David pooh-poohs. But could there be something to his suggestion that if Julie is different from all the other girls, maybe David’s manner of relating to her should be as well?

Sokoloff and Campbell play well off each other, with a teasing rapport that makes their scenes a lot of fun. I also enjoyed Geoffrey Owens as David’s hapless friend Paul and Juliette Jeffers as Paul’s formidable wife Carrie. Among the nursing home crowd, the standouts are Doris Roberts as Rose, the primary object of Joe’s affections, and Liz Sheridan as Edna, the uninhibited woman who first accepts his advances. But the movie’s central relationship really is between David and his grandfather, and ultimately, both of them are able to learn from each other and become closer as a result.

Play the Game is a light-hearted flick that discourages “game-playing” in relationships and encourages intergenerational interaction, and aside from a couple of squirmy scenes, it’s a movie that adult viewers across the age spectrum should be able to enjoy together.