Fair Play - Review

Rating: 4 out of 5

SEXUAL politics, toxic masculinity and how to exist (and succeed) as a woman in a predominantly male world converge spectacularly in this ferociously confrontational thriller from Chloe Domont.

Emily (Phoebe Dynevor) and Luke (Alden Ehrenreich) are both rising star analysts for a ruthless Wall Street hedge fund, who are also newly engaged but keeping their relationship secret.

Their relationship is driven by the thrills incumbent in their careers - their sex as wild, insatiable and spontaneous as the day-to-day nature of their fast paced lives. The tone is set from the outset, following a wild encounter in the toilet during a party.

But when Emily is unexpectedly promoted ahead of Luke, things begin to unravel between them. The power plays take on a more sinister edge as resentments develop and power dynamics are tested.

Domont's film is set in the same kind of back-stabbing, cut-throat environment in which she cut her teeth on Billions - and feels highly credible as an insight into the gender politics that infest that world.

It's bitingly ruthless in its dissection of testosterone-driven ambition... and the lengths to which a woman probably has to go in order to 'fit in' to such a boys' own club.

In doing so, it also serves as a biting takedown of toxic masculinity and gender politics in the workplace that feels highly relevant in the post #MeToo era - where much of the bad behaviour exposed by that movement arguably still exists.

And while comparisons have been made to erotic thrillers of past decades by some critics, I felt Fair Play had an edge on those movies that makes it feel more contemporary and relevant.

Performance-wise, the two leads provide excellent value and enough complexity to enable the film to further escape those throwback comparisons to the likes of Basic Instinct and Fatal Attraction, even if the last act dynamics pander to some of those tropes a little too conveniently.

Dynevor exhibits an often ice-cool calm in the face of unwavering harassment - both unspoken and directly delivered - while also tapping into the vulnerability of her predicament and the fear and resolve inherent in having to navigate it and climb.

Ehrenreich, on the other hand, infuses his character with pent-up rage and emasculation, emerging as a walking time-bomb, capable of being pushed over the edge at any point.

The film therefore gains extra momentum and tension by teasing us with how far these two will be pushed before they break.

Admittedly, there is a problem with how likeable either of them ultimately are, especially since the world in which they exist is so repulsive (capitalism at its most extreme and all-consuming).

But therein lies the film's power to serve as a cautionary tale for our times - an indictment on greed, sexual inequality and power play that exposes the industries at play (and the people within them) for what they are: morally bankrupt in the pursuit of success and wealth.

Fair Play is a ferocious piece of filmmaking.