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Dome Pondering Movie Review: Fair Play (2023)

What is it about? 

An unexpected promotion at a cutthroat hedge firm pushes a recently engaged couple's relationship to the brink and exposes far more than they realized. 

Who is in it?

Phoebe Dynevor - Emily

Alden Ehrenreich - Luke

Eddie Marsan - Cambell

Favorite Scene: 

Emily asks Luke for numbers that keep him working longer than expected, revealing the expectations and drive of the two that are clearly different. 

Favorite Quote: 

I think expectations are way out of whack.

Review: 

Fair Play is a very thoughtful and profound film, especially so once the credits roll and you quickly reflect on what just unraveled. The film is so much more than Wall Street, power brokers, and how ambition - different expectations and accomplishments - can create inharmony within a couple. The film very much exposes the the expectations, stereotypes, and norms of gender roles. 

Throughout the film, Luke cannot deal with the promotion of Emily and attaches every stigma for powerful and successful women to her success. The film examines who carries the burden and ego of such reversals of roles, and the fragility of Luke's ego around his successful mate. 

[spoiler alert]

The final scene is phenomenal as well which dives further into the gender dichotomy of blame, burden, aggression, and shame - and we view them differently when the gender roles are reversed. 

Fair Play is a great thriller that is packed with so much to unpack. Both leads - Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich - were phenomenal. 

Grade: 3.5/5

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