Movie Review: 'Fair Play'

Fair Play (2023)

Directed by Chloe Domont

Written by Chloe Domont

Starring Phoebe Dynevor, Alden Ehrenreich, Eddie Marsan, Rich Sommer

Release Date September 29th, 2023

Published October 12th

Fair Play is a vile, ugly, nasty movie and I kind of love it. Few films have gotten under my skin as deeply as Fair Play has. I've struggled to write about the film until now simply because trying to gather my thoughts on it leaves me both enraged and exhausted. In a good way. I've written this review several times and thrown it out several times. I've written negative reviews and positive reviews and tried to figure out a way to talk about the movie without revealing too much about myself. That's the power of a work of art, when it can get inside you and mess around like that.

Fair Play has a really clever opening shot. The camera opens on the back of Phoebe Dynevor's Emily at a party. She stands alone in the distance as Donna Summer's sex anthem, Love to Love You Baby plays on the soundtrack. The deeper meanings of this shot will become clear as the movie plays out. Emily, alone, singular, distant, and yet, sex is in the air. Sex has a big role to play in Fair Play. In fact, within mere moments of introducing Emily, we meet her boyfriend Luke (Alden Ehrenreich) and the two engage in deeply, unexpectedly transgressive sex that gets bloody. Note that, it's important later.

The sex is followed by Luke almost accidentally asking Emily to marry him. He happened to be carrying a ring which fell out of his pocket as he was getting dressed. Despite the deeply inappropriate moment, Luke decides to ask Emily to marry him and she, surprisingly, says yes. The story of their engagement will be memorable, though I doubt it's the story they will tell their kids if they have any. Get ready because writer-director Chloe Domont is going to do this to us throughout Fair Play, taking life events and giving them a nasty twist.

Emily and Luke met while working together at the same finance gig. Luke has been with the company longer and when an opening management comes around, both Emily and Luke assume that he will get the job. They even celebrate prematurely with sex. That night, at around 2 in the morning, Emily gets a call from their boss, Campbell (Eddie Marsan). He wants her to come have a drink and upon arrival, she's told that she will be getting the promotion that she thought was going to Luke.

It gets more awkward as Luke will now be Emily's immediate underling, her analyst. She will have to tell him what to do and take credit for work that he will do on her behalf, such is the nature of the job. She has to make the hard decision on an investment, but it's based on his grunt work. Luke tries to be happy for his now secret fiancée and now boss, but the cracks in the relationship are immediate and seemingly irreparable. It's not merely Luke's male ego or pride getting in the way, it's also the way both are tip toeing around each other at work and at home.

All of this tension continues to build as Luke makes a bad recommendation and Emily acts on it to appease him and loses big money. She has to fight to get another big deal to make up for it. Then, there is another opening in management, one Luke feels entitled to. He asks Emily to help him get it at a moment when their relationship is at its breaking point. What happens next is a scene so remarkably hard to watch that I had to stop the movie. The second hand embarrassment of this scene is physically painful, as is the way director Chloe Domont refuses to cut away.

And that's the end of the second act of Fair Play. There is still a third act filled with nasty transgressions to fight your way through. Fair Play is relentless in the third act with more of Chloe Domont's passive aggressive camera, one that never fights its way into a scene but is also an unblinking, unrelenting gaze into the growing ugly discontent of two people who once lusted for each other, maybe loved each other, and come to loathe each other.

You will need a strong resolve to complete Fair Play and even stronger resolve to try and parse how the movie makes you feel. For me, I feel nauseous just thinking about the movie. Not because of the movie is actively gross or overly violent, but because of how the movie makes you feel. There are sides to take but neither character is fully good or fully evil until late in the third act when one of them does something that there is no coming back from. By then, you and these characters have been through the ringer and are emotionally spent.

Fair Play is a film you feel with your whole body. The movie is a gut punch, it's one that keeps upping the ante on ugliness and pushing you to quit on it. I won't blame you if you quit on the movie, I get it. I also can't argue with those who dislike or despise Fair Play, it's not a movie that plays by the rules. It's not an easy film to like. For me, it came down to hating the movie in many ways but admiring the film's ability to act upon my mind and body.

As I said at the start, Fair Play got under my skin and I cannot shake the feelings of disgust, discomfort, and lament. Fair Play is a brave movie, pushing into deeply uncomfortable territory and taking everything very seriously. Fair Play is not a passive watch, it's not a movie you observe from a distance, you have to take a position and understand the consequences of your decision, what's at stake and why it matters. It's a movie of no easy answers and an almost unending discomfort, even weeks later when you are trying to write honestly about your feelings about the movie for the 6th or 7th time and worried for how people will feel about you based on how you judge the material.

Yeah, that's what we are dealing with with writer-director Chloe Domont and Fair Play. Nothing simple, nothing easy, but an ungodly memorable film experience. You will feel this movie in the morning. You will feel this movie for a while after you see it and you will question how you feel about it and what that says about you. If that's not an experience you want to have, I completely understand, stay away from this movie. If you like a challenging movie however, Fair Play is one that serves up a load of challenges.

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