Fair Play movie review: New Netflix thriller is an unpleasant experience made palatable by phenomenal Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich performances

Coincidentally, the movie features a career-best performance from Alden Ehrenreich, who is in many ways a successor to Downey; there’s an edginess to him that he keeps hidden under those disarming good looks. Ehrenreich’s career was significantly derailed by the doomed Han Solo movie, but he rampages through Fair Play with an unmistakable hunger in his eyes. The fact that he has spent nearly half-a-decade trying to rebuild his career is also probably a big reason why Domont cast him in the role of a man who feels so inadequate around the success — both material and intangible — that he is constantly surrounded by.

Set in the cut-throat world of high-stakes finance — losing $25 million in a single moment here is considered an oopsie and not a career-ending catastrophe — Fair Play, in its opening moments, has the look and feel of an erotic thriller that Paul Verhoeven would be proud of. Ehrenreich plays Luke, and Bridgerton breakout Phoebe Dynevor plays his fiancé Emily. They work at the same investment firm in New York City, but have kept their relationship a secret for two years because it violates company policy. When a colleague is unceremoniously fired one day, Luke is led to believe that he’s a shoo-in to replace him. But when Emily is given the promotion over him, it sets them on a tumultuous path that will unravel not only their relationship, but their very identity.

Positioning them as regular people is a narrative trick that Domont somehow gets away with for nearly two hours. Because even as their resentment for each other builds, you hold out hope for at least one of them to see sense. Emily finds herself willingly participating in the corporate charade, while Luke is left to fume alone at home. He tells Emily that he is happy for her, but Ehrenreich’s performance is so delicately-tuned in that moment that it’s impossible to tell how honest he’s actually being. Of course, his true feelings come to the fore as the movie goes on.

The pace is relentless; the tension in certain moments is so unbearable that it’s almost as if the Safdie brothers were consulted. But Domont is clearly a talent to out for, even if the nihilism that she displays here feels a little aimless. Sure, her desire to keep pushing the boundaries of good taste  feels so rare in these sanitised times of streaming. But there’s a difference between empty provocation and the provocation of thought.

A last-minute rug-pull, for instance, feels entirely out of place in this dark fairytale about greed and gaslighting, festering bitterness and fragile male egos. It’s a relationship drama about the perils of close proximity; a psychological thriller featuring the two most despicable romantic leads you’re ever likely to see. This, by the way, also creates a bit of a barrier between the audience and the film. Because Domont has such a deep disdain for her protagonists and the world that they inhabit, it’s difficult, after a point, to feel emotionally invested in their escalating battles. All you can do is gawk at the mess, like it’s some kind of curb-side brawl — a beautifully filmed and masterfully directed curb-side brawl, but a curb-side brawl nonetheless.

For all its courage, Fair Play could’ve been even more outrageous experience. But after carefully steering it to within touching distance of David Fincher’s Gone Girl — the pinnacle of this sort of cinema, at least in the last decade  — Domont appears to have a change of heart as she swerves towards a ‘safer’, more conventional ending.

It’s no wonder that Fair Play sparked a heated bidding war at Sundance earlier this year, mimicking the intensity of what happened two years ago, when Netflix secured the rights to another controversial relationship thriller — Malcolm & Marie. It’s entirely possible for Fair Play to be met with the same level of vitriol, especially from audiences unprepared for its nastiness.

Fair Play
Director – Chloe Domont
Cast – Phoebe Dynevor, Alden Ehrenreich, Eddie Marsan
Rating – 4/5