Fair Play

I've been a little MIA lately due to some career related things (a work offsite, changing companies, etc.) so I'm a little late to this buzzy Netflix drama. Even still, I wanted to check it out to see if it was worth the hype. 

As this is a Rapid Review, the short answer is...sure? Fair Play is probably getting a lot of extra "OMG" reactions for some of it's sexual moments, none of which are all that outlandish, and otherwise it's an interesting, if not draining, drama about a couple with some wild (read: very toxic) power dynamics. 

Emily (Phoebe Dynevor) and Luke (Alden Ehrenreich) both work at the same trading firm in a high-pressure, highly toxic environment. It's one where no one in leadership cares about how late you work, the men talk about women like sexual objects, and if you mess up as a woman, you're called a b***h. Bluntly, this film lost some of its luster with me pretty quickly because of this work environment if only for the fact that I couldn't stop asking myself: "It's 2023...just go find a much less stressful job...?" Sure, there's lots of money to be had in this industry, but it's also entirely obvious they were selling their souls. 

I digress. Emily eventually gets promoted in a role that Luke thought he was going to get. Luke is a bit of a fragile male all around, so he doesn't handle it well and a once-bright relationship where they had just gotten engaged, starts to crumble. If you remove some of the excess excitement around Fair Play, it turns out to be a solid little drama about a couple stuck in the world of high-pressure corporate America, while trying to navigate their changing - and against-the-norm - power dynamic. In that way, it can be very interesting as the relationship begins to devolve and we see Luke struggling to come to terms with his significant other, whom he claims to love "so much", now earn the role he believed was for him (even though he apparently sucks at his job). It has a lot to say about entitlement, gender gaps and norms in the workplace, and relationship dynamics, all of which it does well thanks to a solid script and some top-notch performances by Ehrenreich and Dynevor. 

That the film isn't as special as the hype surrounding it isn't entirely its fault. At nearly 2 hours, I believe it's biggest fault is that it should have been shorter, especially because the toxicity leaking from every place and character is draining, and continues to ramp up as the end gets near. I could see this film being a conversation starter, not to mention a good litmus test for people to see which character they side with, but if you're watching it for the sex...well...you've likely been misinformed. 

Rapid Rath's Review Score | 7/10