Fair Play review: Love, work, sex, and power | review

All is fair in love and work. At least that’s what aspiring power couple Emily (Phoebe Dynevor) and Luke (Alden Ehrenreich) would probably tell you.

When we first meet them, they are the picturesque young couple twirling their way through the dance floor of Luke’s brother’s wedding. Their chemistry is palpable, especially when their steamy sex scene in the bathroom ends in a very un-steamy way. They simply laugh off the blunder. One semi-accidental marriage proposal later and the now-engaged couple is on the floor of their Chinatown apartment awoken by their 4:30am alarm that rattles them to start their day. Where they were messy and carefree in the scene before, they go about their morning routine with near-precision — perfectly brewing their espresso, Emily tying her hair into a tight bun, Luke donning a crisp white button down. They leave and go their separate ways only to find each other again in the elevator of the hedge fund firm they both work for.

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Since they’re both low-level analysts, they keep their relationship secret — it’s something anyone would use for leverage in the cutthroat industry. That doesn’t stop them from listening in on the conversations that float in-and-out of earshot — we too hear snippets of the workplace banter. One particular statement catches Emily’s attention: Luke is on-deck to replace the recently fired portfolio manager who we watched nearly go postal in an earlier scene — “thought he was gonna jump,” one of the analysts emotionlessly quips. When Emily tells Luke what she’s heard, he’s almost drunk on the news — and horny. The pair have hot-and-heavy sex to celebrate, but writer-director Chloe Domont isn’t out to make an erotic thriller and we’ll soon realize this.

After Emily receives a 2am phone call from one of their superiors, she rushes over to an exclusive club down a sketchy alleyway to find Campbell (Eddie Marsan), the firm’s CEO, waiting for her to offer her the recently opened portfolio manager role. Domont presents the scene almost like a horror movie where Emily is the prey and Campbell is the predator. It highlights the power imbalance between the two — the fact that he could get her to meet him in the dead of the night (and despite Luke’s protests) only furthers that. When she returns to the apartment, she relays the news to Luke with near dread. But where his reaction to the news that he could be promoted was euphoria, it’s decidedly measured for Emily. And as much as he tries to convince her that he’s happy for her success, you can see the pain in his face as Emily walks into her new office separated by a wall of glass as if to tease those outside of it.

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From there, Fair Play turns into a ticking time bomb as the couple’s relationship is put under the strain of Luke’s arrogance and Emily’s ambition.

It’s the balancing of those two threads that make the movie — particularly Dupont’s sharp screenplay — so impressive. At times, the movie is a corporate barnburner about Emily navigating her newfound success as a woman in an industry that is decidedly a boy’s club. In others, it’s a psychosexual relationship drama about how deviations from the traditional gender dynamics can send men into a tailspin — let’s just say Luke probably loved Joker. And at it’s most satisfying, both worlds come careening together as the pair navigate the minefield of their relationship in the workplace.

Dumont throws situations at the character to deepen the cracks in the foundation of their relationship that eventually turn into a canyon. Like when Luke makes a bad call an investment and sends Emily scrambling to fix his mistake, he cannot take blame for his actions just as he can’t praise Emily for her successful attempt to avert disaster. When she receives a bonus of $525k for her quick work, she types out a text asking Luke if he wants to “staycation” at a fancy hotel before adding… “my treat,” and then quickly deleting it.

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It’s the tension between Luke’s grasp for the power of his masculinity — Ehrenreich plays his descent into arrogant patriarchy-fueled madness with the gusto of a Golden Age Hollywood star — and Emily’s careful tiptoeing around his ego that drive the thrills of Fair Play as well as its devilishly fun sparing that keep you engaged through every minute of its spry two-hour runtime.

In its final minutes, Fair Play takes a massive swing that will turn some viewers off but leave most satisfied with its conclusion. Dumont isn’t precious about the movie’s core themes of power and privilege, specifically when it comes to gender dynamics in relationships and the workplace. She’s as transparent as the office’s glass walls. But that’s what makes Fair Play such an entertaining watch despite its high tension.