Featuring an all star cast of Gerard Butler, Jessica Biel, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Uma Thurman, Judy Greer and Dennis Quaid, the upcoming movie Playing For Keeps is due to be released December 7th. In the new trailer, we meet former professional soccer player George (Butler), his extranged ex-wife (Biel) as well as their son and both of their new love interests.

The trailer gives the appearance of a messy entangled web of relationships and second chances, but doesn’t leave much room for imagination. It almost completely ruins any notion of wondering who ends up with who so hopefully the plot will add an unexpected something.

Playing For Keeps looks like a light-hearted romantic comedy, but doesn’t exactly look to present any unique plotlines. Luckily it’s directed by an Italian film director, Gabriele Muccino who has moved from Italian movies towards Hollywood films. You may recognize him from movies like The Pursuit of Happyness and Seven Pounds, for which he was handpicked by the films’ star Will Smith. In fact, Smith had to defend Muccino as a choice to the studio as he could “barely speak English” at the time of filming The Pursuit of Happyness.  Lucky for Will, both films were successful and showed Muccino’s abilities as a big time director.

Both films directed by Muccino looked simple on the surface, much like the trailer for Playing for Keeps, but turned out to be far more complex. Hopefully, working with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars will only add to the quirky and alternating perspectives we’ve seen in Muccino’s prior work.

Gerard Butler is not only the film’s star, but also one of it’s producers. Butler has produced a few of his other films, but seems to be dabbling in the production world more and more as the years progress. While it’s really hard for me to recognize Gerard as anything other than The Phantom of the Opera, it’s always neat to see actors transform for their roles. I hope he’s got the athleticism of a former pro-athlete, with maybe just a touch of Spartan bloodlust.

Think this movie will be just another chick-flick romcom or has it got the potential to be something more? Watch the trailer and decide for yourself!

Playing for Keeps Trailer: