“One of the more incisive and powerfully made movies about relationship dynamics”
Netflix’s latest steamy psychological thriller, Fair Play, is a wicked, intense, and deeply investing flick that explores the demise of a once healthy relationship after the escalation of one’s career. Making her feature directorial debut, Chloe Domont offers up one of Netflix’s biggest surprises of the year. It’s a murky but beautifully shot flick that follows two ambitious investors who soon face the cut-throat and demoralizing world of finance. It explores how power, greed, and insecurity can implode a relationship in a tense drama that intimately examines office politics and sexism.
Fair Play follows Emily (Dynevor) and Luke (Ehrenreich), a passionate couple working for a cutthroat investment firm on Wall Street, New York. Their relationship is secretive as it’s against company policy to date co-workers. They have a profound love and admiration for one another, leading to Luke getting down on one knee and proposing to Emily in a toilet. It may not sound romantic, but due to their passion, it strangely is. But when it’s time for them to go to work, they take separate modes of transportation, and are very formal with one another when they’re on the clock.
After hearing a rumor that Luke could potentially be in the running for a promotion, Emily receives a call at 2am to meet with the firm’s CEO, who offers her the promotion over Luke. Emily reluctantly tells Luke the news. He smiles and congratulates her, showing his support for his partner. However, he does so with an undertone of anger, resentment, and disappointment. It isn’t long before the economical and hierarchal differences between the two begin to drastically affect the relationship.
But when Emily gets that promotion, audiences can feel Luke instantly slip away and resent her through Domont’s subtle dialogue and camera work. Emily tries to help Luke get a promotion, but he is having none of it, ignoring Emily and getting snappy with her at home. Domont presents a tense dynamic that could explode any minute. Their anger and frustration with one another slowly but surely rises, leading to one almighty blowup.
Cast: Phoebe Dynevor , Alden Ehrenreich, Eddie Marsan, Rich Sommer, Sebastian De Souza.