Fair Play is not the erotic thriller Netflix’s algorithm so desperately wants it to be. There is sex, yes, and a psychological duel, but very little perverse desire. It’s ultimately a very ugly film. That’s not its failure, but its intention. Fair Play is about the sort of guy a lot of women are uncomfortably familiar with – the one who’s perfect until he’s not, who’s an ally as long as he stays in power. It’s also about the sort of woman other women dread to become, the one who realises her own power is illusory only when it’s far too late.
Director Chloe Domont, fresh from Showtime’s finance drama Billions, has also set her feature debut around a New York City hedge fund. Emily (Phoebe Dynevor) and Luke (Alden Ehrenreich) are lustfully in love, co-workers who have unwisely blended work and life. He proposes by accidentally dropping the ring on the floor, having fallen to his knees and crawled up her dress in a public bathroom, reemerging with lips stained by period blood. He’s completely unbothered. The whole scene feels comfortably intimate and oddly romantic.
