Saw this at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival
"Fair Play" is a story about an unexpected promotion at a cutthroat hedge fund pushes a young couple's relationship to the brink, threatening to unravel far more than their recent engagement. Director Chloe Domont clearly takes influence on stress tension storytelling films like Uncut Gems, Shiva Baby and so on and the film does offer some strong aspects.
The performances from the main two leads were pretty great as emotions of all sorts were able to be exposed from their faces, voice, and body language. The camerawork, production designs, and soundtrack also provided strong tones and energy to the narrative. For the most part, I did enjoy the tension filled atmosphere and the clash between men vs women. But unfortunately, those aspects are overshadowed with characters that were hard to fully be invested with.
The narrative aspects seem interesting but the formula it takes feels pretty tame at times and it doesn't feel as impactful as it wants to be. The characters are pretty unbearable and I know that's the intentions of the filmmaker but they weren't investing and I struggled to really connect with any of them. The style and pacing of the film feels like it took too much influence on films like "Uncut Gems".
There are some good dialogue moments but some of the dialogue did feel a bit forced. Pacing didn't have any issues. The climax scene was pretty cringy to be honest.
Overall, it's a film that I can see many will be enjoying it but it didn't fully work with me.
Rating: C+
