Fair Play (2023) was released to Netflix this October, is directed by Chloe Domont, and stars Phoebe Dynevor, Alden Ehrenreich, and Eddie Marsan. The film follows a couple who both work for a respected hedge fund in New York City. When an unexpected promotion begins to pit the couple against one another, their relationship immediately begins to suffer. When things go from bad to worse, both sides of the relationship are forced to ask themselves if all of the crap is worth it. The question is: can they figure it all out before tensions boil over to the point of no return? Bolstered by great lead performances from Dynevor and Ehrenreich, Fair Game succeeds at being one of the more tense yet unconventional thrillers I’ve seen this year. 

Dynevor shows a lot of acting maturity, succeeding in toeing the line between a character that is believable but likewise interesting enough to justify following her for two hours. She is capable and intelligent, but never above being wrong by those around her. She is flawed in the best sense, avoiding her character feeling like a caricature of women who are mistreated in the workplace, then come back with a vengeance. In a sense, she is strong but equally flawed. Good characters require balance, and Dynevor delivers. Ehrenreich gives an equally balanced performance as a boyfriend who feels his masculinity/strength is being undermined at every turn. In the first half of the film, he is portrayed as a truly loving and supportive boyfriend. When the second half comes along, he becomes angry, depressed, and frustrated. In a way, he’s sort of the antagonist here. You could even call him the villain. The thing is, the character is much too nuanced throughout most of the runtime. We completely understand why this character change happened. As well, we recognize that he wasn’t always this way. We see exactly how outside events change him. Therefore, although we should dislike this character (which we for the most part do), we admire him because his pain feels real. His reactions to that pain? Well, that stuff definitely makes him an ass. Eddie Marsan also shows up in his typical kind of character role. He plays the sort of hardass boss at a cutthroat company. He doesn’t have much character himself, but he is used in a way that creates recurring tension between the couple. 

Right off the bat, there is great romantic chemistry between the two leads, perfectly setting us up to watch it all crumble. They are shown to be loving and supportive. The film makes the intelligent choice of letting us spend a decent amount of time with these characters while they are still in their sort of honeymoon state. When we arrive at the more intense and climactic moments, they feel so meaningful because the audience knows exactly how detrimental it will be to their relationship. We almost care more about these two as a couple than as individuals. This is important because before their relationship reaches its eventual point of no return, we are constantly hoping that they’ll be able to salvage what they had in the early portions of the film. Even when we know things are beginning to go south, each character attempts to salvage the relationship in genuine ways. When things do break down, it feels almost tragic. This all works so well partly because of the really strong pacing. Nothing feels like wasted time. Sure, development is slow, but this is because the character development here is really complex. People don’t just immediately jump to feeling one way or another, they slowly reach those changes over multiple realizations/experiences. In this way, nothing feels forced or unexplained. 

This film is a great exploration of how the desire for career success can sometimes distract us from the best moves in our personal lives. The film balances this out by likewise exploring how our personal lives can lead to poor decisions in our professional lives. This is partly achieved through shifts in power dynamics. When one character has the power at work, the other attempts to equal that power at home, and vice versa. These desires for power throughout the film are more so the source of tension than the actual job. The film does a great job of subverting the classic “flawed relationship that we eventually fix by the end” structure. This film is the opposite. We start with them perfectly in love and get to watch it crumble into complete toxicity. The film succeeds in consistently challenging what outcomes we desire for these characters. There is also some well-placed comedy that admittedly isn’t comedic gold, but succeeds in making the audience laugh simply because those are the few moments that break the absurdly uncomfortable tension. You laugh because you’re happy you don’t have to be stressed out for a few seconds. 

My big issue with the film is that I couldn’t ignore the question of :Why do these supposedly successful adults act so immaturely at almost every single turn? Seriously, almost all of the tension and bad events could be avoided if there was even just the slightest bit of maturity involved in their interactions. 

This is one of those modern films that explores the subject of toxic masculinity, but doesn’t do so in a way that feels preachy like so many modern films relating to the subject. There’s no meta, real-world addressing of the audience. We are just given the pieces, and are expected to come to our own conclusions. We see exactly how women are commonly undervalued in the workplace, being given less opportunity and exposure. This is balanced by displaying how much pressure is put on men to succeed simply because they are men. 

The film fulfills the promise of leading to a dark ending, but it never felt standard. The climatic moments between the characters feel natural and thematically meaningful. The only issue I have is that the film takes a firm stance in the final minutes. With morals that felt so back and forth, I felt it strange to finally take a stand right at the end. Though, if the film was going to take a stand somewhere, I’m glad it took that stance where it did.

Overall, If you can handle a genuine exploration of toxic relationships/masculinity, you’ll find Fair Play to be one of the more tense experiences of the year. Although I felt it could’ve ended with themes that were much more complex/challenging, it was still effective until it cut to black. B+