PLAYING IT COOL (2015)

Genre: Comedy/Romance
Director: Justin Reardon
Cast: Chris Evans, Michelle Monaghan, Iaon Gruffudd, Anthony Mackie, Topher Grace, Aubrey Plaza, Ashley Tisdale, Luke Wilson
Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins
Rating: M18 (Some Sexual Scenes)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 7 May 2015

Synopsis:  The narrator (Evans) is a writer and wants to write action but his publisher Bryan (Mackie) wants him to write about romance first. The problem is, the narrator doesn't believe in love. But when he meets Her (Monaghan), he falls for her, only to find out that she is already engaged to Stuffy (Gruffudd).

Movie Review:

Sometimes, a superhero simply needs to take a break from saving the world and indulge in some romantic liaisons; you know the usual mundane boy-meets-girl stuff.

Captain America aka Chris Evans co-produces and stars in this indie flick about a Hollywood screenwriter, who is being tasked by his agent played by Anthony Mackie aka Falcon to help finish a rom-com script for Ashley Tisdale and Matthew Morrison. The tricky part is that Chris Evans' character never believes in love and has never been in love since the day his mum abandoned him. As a result, he suffers from a serious case of writer’s block until he meets a girl (played by Michelle Monaghan from True Detective) at a charity event and falls for her.

Playing It Cool attempts to play it smart by constantly taking potshots at romantic clichés and typical rom-com proceedings. Maybe you will think that’s the whole point of the movie, which is scribed by first-time writers, Chris Shafer and Paul Vicknair. But as it turns out, the results are fairly annoying when the entire affair ends up to be an exact replica of its intended message. Boy meets girl who is already attached to someone else, they try to remain platonic, they have sex, girl going to get marry to boring boyfriend (Ioan Gruffudd) blah blah blah so on and so forth.

Even without Evan’s constant rambling voiceover, you could probably tell what’s going to happen next as the plot offers no surprising twists or a fresh spin to already stale material. Even the friends of Chris Evans' character are a bunch of clichéd personalities liked the gay best friend, Scott (Topher Grace), a slacker (Martin Starr), a bored married guy (Luke Wilson) and a tomboy (Aubrey Plaza). Probably Evans’ grandpa (Philip Baker Hall) is the only one that appears to be genuinely believable.

That being said, the rom-com does have its whimsical moments. Whenever they are flashbacks or fantastical stories told by the people, Evans and Monaghan always manage to ham things up like dressing up in traditional costumes mimicking a Korean drama or Evans resorting to cross-dressing. It’s borderline funny but half a loaf is better than none right? In addition, there is a handsomely done brief animation segment that recalls grandpa’s time in World War II. Sweet, I would watch a full-length feature of it.

There are simply not enough reasons to catch Playing It Cool despite the presence of the ever so charming Chris Evans and the gorgeously beautiful Monaghan. You can’t deny the duo has tremendous chemistry onscreen, it’s just that watching the suave Evans playing a flawed guy in a rom-com is a bit dull comparing to him saving the world from Ultron. He seriously needs a shield in real-life to ward off the bad scripts. 

Movie Rating:

(Cool doesn’t apply here more like bland)

Review by Linus Tee