Role Play

There are a number of low ratings and negative reviews for this movie and to me they missed the whole point of this movie. It is mostly a comedy, not to be taken so seriously. My wife and I were entertained.

Kaley Cuoco, who also produced, is the star as Emma Brackett. She is married with two children. She goes out of town on "business" trips but it not the traditional business. Nor is it the career her husband thinks she has. As the trailer for the movie clearly points out, she is an assassin.

She is married to David Oyelowo as Dave Brackett. He is a standard, honest man. One night when he and Emma decide to do something different, they go to a hotel to pretend to be strangers, meet at a bar, and end up in a hotel room together. However that "date" doesn't go as planned. It sets the tone for the rest of the movie.

Bill Nighy is good in everything he is in. Here he is Bob Kellerman who also shows up at the bar. He starts flirting with Emma. In the conversation he drops word hints. It soon becomes obvious to her that he knows who she is and he is in the same profession.

Things develop from there, Emma's husband finds out what she really does, he is mortified. He can't believe it. In the end it becomes a fight for survival.

We watched it at home, streaming on Amazon Prime. Viewed as a dark comedy we found it suitably entertaining.

Why is Role Play getting some backlash? Pretty sure it's because of the genre the audience is expecting before even hitting the play button. If viewing the film from a different perspective then there are plenty of merits on display here.

One being the performances and the chemistry between the actors/actresses. Kaley Cuoco has it in abundance, I can't quite put my finger on it, but it's there I can feel it. Maybe it adaptability, sophistication or sassy sexiness emulating from one scene to another, still clearly she has it here. I'm going in pretty blind as I haven't seen much of her previous work, no Big Bang or Flight Attendant! Secondly David Oyelowo matches her well and their on screen chemistry appears second nature to me. I think one review mentioned they seem cute together, I don't know about that however I do know they seem believable. I didn't doubt their onscreen relationship for one minute which is exactly what you want to get engrossed into a film.

Now going back to adaptability, Kaley Cuoco embraces the role managing to create a balance between cute cuddly lovable wife and mum to deadly badass assassin. When she get down to business she is strong assertive and bold juxtaposed with being playful and cute at home. David Oyelowo manages to bring emotional empathy within the script through his acting once finding out about the truth. What was once his normal family life has a huge flip side that we can see in his expressions is troublesome to say the least.

So who steals the film with the standout scene, it's obviously none other than Bill Nighy. The man in the middle of this triangle has the standout scene of the film in the bar. A slow burner or so in the first twenty minutes soon well and truly warms up with a little Role Play, no pun intended. Soon as the get to the title it gets rather interesting.

Script is where this one struggles for me, I'd say our cast made their own character development and produced mountains out of molehills. It's not until the later that you realise if not for the charisma and humour this could've been way more bland than a two steak, and that isn't me being tough. Seth W. Owen needed a better character development arc to suggest why Emma Brackett (Kaley Cuoco) was unable to leave sooner from being an assassin, yes it does explain, yet it all very loose lacking depth or much interest. Dave Brackett (David Oyelowo) really seems weak running all the way to Berlin for an explanation after all he has heard and been through. Yes I understand it's his wife, it just seemed rather forced.

Thomas Vincent has given us something intriguing for the most part similar to films like Mr and Mrs Smith and True Lies however this one really does fall short towards the climax and is saved by the talented cast of characters they created.

This is basically a gender swap of Mark Wahlburg's "Family Plan", but without the same level of humor or action. The lead actors are fine, the action sequences are well done but waaaay too short. The story is predictable, the humorous bits garner a chuckle at best. It's great to see Kaley branch out, but this doesn't come close to her performance in "Flight Attendant" on Apple TV. I think she deserves a bigger audience, and I'll continue waiting for her to find that true breakout role so she'll no longer just be Penny from The Big Bang Theory. As others have said, it makes for some fine background noise, but ultimately is pretty forgettable.

Can't understand the negativity around this film.

It's not supposed to be taken seriously, it's just a fun movie that doesn't expect you to be gripping your seat arms or biting your nails wondering what's going to happen next.

Kaley Cuoco is as good as she always is, especially as she found out she was pregnant whilst shooting it, and has good support from the rest of the cast throughout the movie, especially from David Oleyowo who I've never seen before.

Connie Nielson is always a good watch and she puts her all into the role.

So just sit back with a glass of wine and some popcorn and forget everything else for a while and enjoy the entertainment.

An uneven script, uncertain directing, and bad casting let this picture down badly. It is a shame, really. Kaley Cuoco, however I don't like her, does a great job as so does David Oyelowo to convince us about a story barely believable. But casting Connie Nielsen as the villain is a very bad joke. It's like casting Sir David Attenborough as Lex Luthor. Her pure physical presence contradicts that. I guess it's the director fault to accept her as the villain in the first place. Then, he rightly proves himself unable to bring out the 'beast' of her, which is understandable. She is nothing like that. The camerawork is OK, so is the score, but otherwise it's just another film you will forget almost instantly after watching. As I said earlier, it's a shame. Waste of talent.