Fair Play

7.9 stars.

Long time since I've seen a movie quite like this. There are a lot of psychological thrillers out there, but very few pull off this genre as effectively as 'Fair Play'.

These are some actors I'm not very familiar with, although his role as Han Solo was noteworthy, even though I didn't totally love that movie. I see she's in Bridgerton and I watched several episodes.

What totally caught me off guard was how methodically this film escalates to the inevitable destruction of two previously beautiful and intelligent lovers. No momentum is lost as it builds and builds at a steady and thrilling pace until they implode. What is truly chilling - this is a plausible outcome given the right circumstances. Take an underachiever coupled with someone out of their league, mix in a little crazy and you've stumbled on the narrative of 'Fair Play'. I've seen situations like this with my own relatives when they had a few too many (if you know what I mean) and this couple has a few too many throughout this story. I don't believe the director or writers even realize fully what they are presenting to us. Take the wealth, prestige, good looks, charm, and too much fire water, and you have the perfect set of circumstances, leading to the demise of two talented and lovely young adults.

This thriller is all about emasculation and lack of confidence in an otherwise normal and down-to-earth guy. In all respects, she is well adjusted, he is not, and this disconnect is the root of their dismantling. As the couple spirals even further into chaos, you might be surprised at how the story ends. The final scene is absolutely brilliant.

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.

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.

The pair to compartmentalize their personal and work lives to some extent, but all hope of keeping work and love separate goes wrong when she receives a promotion he thought he was going to get. This is not the erotic thriller Netflix's algorithm so desperately would like it to be. There is sex, yes, and a psychological duel, but not so much perverse desire. It's ultimately an ugly film. Fair Play is about the sort of guy a lot of women are uncomfortably familiar with - the one who's perfect until he's not, who's an ally as long as he stays in power. It's about the sort of woman other women dread to become, the one who realises her own power is illusory only when it's far too late. Both the lead actors deliver good performances but in my opinion you don't know where the whole story is going..

So many missed opportunities.

"Fair Play" had a chance to be a spicy erotic thriller about all sorts of gender power dynamics. But instead an incident late in the film puts one character in the unequivocal role of victim and the other in the unequivocal role of aggressor, and all nuance or ambiguity for the audience is stripped away. It doesn't help that the two leads have zero chemistry, and they're also both fairly reprehensible people as far as anything the film tells us about them (which isn't much). They're superficial and materialistic, and both are willing to sell their souls to a morally bankrupt profession. There's no rooting interest here, so I didn't much care who came out on top. The movie mostly just felt me leaving bad and like I needed to take a shower.

Grade: B-