Fair Play: Movie Review — Totally Awesome but Cringe

In my opinion, brace yourself while watching this movie because something will make you want to jump into this movie to whip both the male (Luke) and the female (Emily) actor and actress, but you can’t. Some of their actions will really get you angry. Especially Luke’s action.

PS: If you are a genuinely toxic person, either male or female, you have a lot to learn from this movie. And I pray your toxicity, or in this jealousy, bites you in the ass if you don’t do better (smiles).

I will be rating this movie, “Fair Play” based on three things: Cultural and Societal Relevance, Storytelling and Originality, and Overall Impact.

Let’s start with the basics. This movie is 1 hour and 55 minutes long, and if you choose to watch this movie after reading this, brace yourself for a full ride of pervasive language, sexual content, some nudity, sexual violence, and a lot of emotional abuse.

Like I said, this is a very erotic movie centered around two successful and ambitious financial analysts named Emily (the lead actress from Bridgerton season 1) and Luke (this guy will annoy you in this movie — so drink water now and make peace with it). The thing about being successful and ambitious is that you will consistently want to grow in your field or career, get promoted, and get better pay. Who can say no to more pay? Obviously, not me, as long as its legal. But adding jealousy to these two amazing traits (success and ambition) is a no-no. Let’s talk about the cultural relevance of this movie.

• Cultural and societal relevance: This movie gets an A+ in this category, and I will tell you why. You see, most organizations frown against office romance, which I don’t think is fair; they want to ensure a sense of sanity in their office. Office romance can be chaotic. The first thing you will pick up after watching this movie for about 70 minutes is that deprivation can really bring out the true colours of a person, or in this case, Luke’s true personality. Luke was a very charming man; ladies will say he checked all the boxes (his height, though). Imagine when a man who checks all your boxes starts acting up because you earn more than him, and obviously he can’t bitch about it to anybody at work because of the work policy. Honestly, this speaks a lot to the poor upbringing in most societies. Our society has conditioned men to think they should earn more than their female counterparts, even if the latter is more competent. It irks me. Cultural views aside, a person, male or female, should be valued and paid according to the work they deliver. Obviously, Luke (the male lead character) doesn’t agree with me; he became very toxic towards Emily (the female lead character) all through the movie. Emily equally gave him a taste of his own medicine, which I am glad she did. I would have been disappointed if she hadn’t shown him hell. I was still a bit disappointed, though. I have a question: does a proposal happen in a public toilet? I really want to know, or is it just a movie thing?
• Storytelling and Originality: So I mentioned that Luke proposed to Emily, and she said yes; this was before Emily got promoted. Let’s assume everything went as planned and they eventually got married. How will they handle this when their organization eventually finds out? Because to me, they never discussed this before the proposal. I grade this a “B” for originality, but the storyline was top-notch. The actor and actress bodied their characters excellently. I was surprised at how Emily (played by Phoebe Dynevor from Bridgerton) lost her British accent in this movie because my thought was that her role in Bridgerton niched her as an actress. I love when actors and actresses can switch between roles, just like Freddie Highmore from The Good Doctor.
• Overall Impact: I would rate the overall impact of “Fair Play” a solid “A”. I will tell you why. This movie will make you think about your moral stance on certain issues. Emily in this movie happens to be very intelligent. She knows how to handle herself during uncomfortable times (this is what being educated does to you). She gave her best to work; she also did her best to make her relationship work, but Luke was just a deeply insecure, jealous, and provocative person. His character would make you realize how easily you have over looked certain personality traits in a friendship, situation ship or relationship.

I will recommend this movie to anybody going through a toxic relationship (no shades). Most of the time, people in relationships make excuses for their significant other. This is mainly because they feel at fault, and our society has not been very helpful; it blames people (especially women) to submission. We hear people make excuses like “he will change”, “work has been stressful for him/her”, or “he doesn’t mean it”.

Generally, stop making excuses for another person’s bad character.