Playmaker

This one works if you can suspend your disbelief just a wee bit more than you'd normally allow. The reward is a twisty ride through smoke and mirrors, stopping along the way to ask some pretty hefty questions.

Jamie is an aspiring actress who is long on ambition but short in the confidence department. Out of desperation, she hooks up with a brilliant but eccentric acting coach. He teaches her that nothing is what it seems, but what she really learns is that if you're good enough at deception, you can get away with murder. However, the real lesson here is that success achieved by becoming more ruthless than your enemies makes you the enemy.

Because your sympathy is with Jamie at all times, you are encouraged to believe that she is forced to take this position by people more evil than herself. This is a highly suspicious concept, I think. But it is an interesting idea and fairly well presented in a funhouse structure with enough surprises to keep you intrigued.

I am a Colin Firth fan and will watch anything he's in. He is the sole redeeming part of this film. He plays two characters in effect and plays them well, despite the abysmally inept script and direction. Everything about this film is seriously bad and very cheap looking. Spending a little more on clothing and props would definitely have been worth it. The lead actress, playing an aspiring starlet, is dressed like a preschool teacher and an important prop--the necklace--looks ugly and cheap. Jennifer Rubin does a good job as the "agent" at the end of the movie, but her performance as the actress during the teaching scenes with Colin Firth is very bad, although Ms. Rubin has done good work in other films. This is a recommend to fill in your Colin Firth inventory, but once is enough, and he's the only actor worth watching.

Playmaker doesn't make sense to me. At first you thought `Ross' was some master but actually was a fake. I missed the point of the movie, or is there one? The ending - so Jamie Harris got away with murder ?

If it wasn't for Colin Firth, the movie would be ready for the dust bin! So foreseable, so silly and so badly acted!! Only Colin Firth, as always, shines through this mess as single light on the end of the tunnel!!

The worst was Jennifer Rubin's acting, for sure! Maybe it was because of this script (did they actually have really written one or was it just made up "on the way"???).

To cut a tooo long story short:

It is a MUST SEE only for Colin Firth Fanatics (like me) since he is incredibly sexy and good acting (struggling hard against this "mentally challenged" script). These minutes of Colin-Screen-Time make up a lot of this movie.

Don't spend too much money on it, though. Try to see or get it as cheap as possible (an auction or something like that) and then do stick to the Colin Firth scenes.

The rest of the movie might be dangerous for anyones mental health.

This movie is one of the best and moving I have ever seen, because of the terrible good performance of the main actress Jennifer Rubin as Jamie Harris, who really makes you feel with her. Also the music by Mark Snow is wonderful.