Franc-jeu

I based my rating primarily on the good acting. I felt the actors were quite convincing, and most of the supporting roles were also decent. No doubt this is higher than average quality in filmmaking. And as much as I wanted to become emotionally invested, I just couldn't. Some of the behavior with the two main characters was off putting. The back and forth which I thought might create a nice push and pull dynamic, became frustrating for the viewer. And unfortunately the ending seemed more rushed than well-planned. Would I recommend? Yeah, for a run of the mill movie, but will I watch it again? Sorry no.

I saw Fair Play at Sundance 2023 in a crowd of cinema enthusiasts, making the theater experience electric and engaging! While Fair Play isn't my typical movie taste, it was exceptionally well done, with tension and stress building consistently from start to finish and exploding into all-out insanity and paranoia in the film's final act. My heart was pounding as the selfishness and jealousy of these characters devolved into pure hatred and disdain. Once the credits rolled, I finally felt like I could breathe for the first time in an hour! Domont did so much with so little, mastering suspense and keeping the audience on edge. With such arrogant and self-centered characters, it is hard to "enjoy" the film and the sexual content was unnecessary, but the craft and skill are undeniable, and it's no surprise why it was so well received at Sundance and scooped up so quickly by Netflix.

I thought this was a very entertaining movie. The direction of the movie was obvious from the beginning and yet that didn't change the thrill of the journey. The movie is ultimately about how insecurities and bitterness will rot a relationship. Anxiety and angst are probably the main feelings you will experience throughout the movie but that's because it felt like the stakes were always high. The acting was superb by the whole cast. Phoebe Dynevor's facial expressions really sold the movie. As her character experiences the different stages of the movie, you can't help but feel the same as her. She reminded my of Alexandra Daddario's performance in the White Lotus. So much can be said by bewildering expression. Overall, I'd recommend this gripping psychological drama.

To be honest, Phoebe Dynevor's passionate performance in this film is quite seductive and different from her previous roles. Fortunately, the main focus of this film emphasizes that they are colleagues who are in love and whether they have different views regarding the only career advancement opportunity. If it were me, I would certainly wish my loved one the best and support her to climb higher. But I'm not the male lead, and I'm just an ordinary Taiwanese person. I'm not very familiar with whether Americans in the finance industry need to uncover secrets like in this film to advance their careers.

First of all, it's incredibly distracting that it's NOT actually filmed in NYC but in Serbia. I literally had to pause the movie and look up the filming location within the first 10 minutes or so, because the entire "feel" of the movie was NOT New York, and I wondered, "Are they supposed to be living somewhere overseas? But everyone has American accents..." It's amazing how unique NYC's entire energy is, that you can't really copy it by filming elsewhere. So, the whole film had an otherworldly feel to it, and that bugged me.

On to the plot: I was engaged for the most part, and wanted to see what was going to happen. The acting was good. By the time we got to the final scene, though, I was just underwhelmed. It needed a twist, or it needed to have gone much, much deeper into the characters' inner lives. It was kind of like a cross between a character-driven film and a plot-driven film, but neither of those was strong enough to give it the "oomph" it needed to make it a great film.

I read someone's review that they said the ending was what every power woman dreams of or something. What?? No. I'm a woman who is successful career-wise, and I don't relate to the female lead character at all (okay, maybe a little bit professionally, but not in her relationship with her fiancee). In fact, I would have just dumped the guy after he started pouting incessantly due to my promotion. I couldn't understand why the character wasted her time with him, and I found it tedious.

That character is also annoyingly terrible at communicating with her mother. The way she lets herself be led around by her is BEYOND annoying. I'm in my 50s and I wouldn't have ever let my mother do what her mother did... (hint: call off the unasked-for party like a grown-up!). How would a younger woman in today's world let that kind of 1950s behavior go on? It just doesn't make sense.

Overall, the movie was still entertaining. A decent effort and not a total waste of time. But it could have been SO much more, and left me kind of wondering, "What was the point of this movie?"