ROLE PLAY

There are, I think, some interesting comparisons to be made between this and HBO Max series The Flight Attendant.

In the latter Kaley Cuoco plays, as you may have guessed, a flight attendant who is thrown into an espionage plot. She is not a natural spy, someone who has had the role thrust upon her, and who is desperately trying to return to her old life.

In Role Play Cuoco’s Emma is a natural assassin. She is cool under pressure, constantly alert to danger, and someone who has been in the life for longer than she can remember. But she is also someone trying to get out of the world.

Cuoco, to her credit, is equally convincing in both roles. While she may not be able to handle John Wick levels of choreographed action, and it is apparent at times that they have cut away to a stunt person, I did believe her in this role, as I did in her role in The Flight Attendant.

She is a very watchable screen presence, who has an easy chemistry with David Oyelowo, playing husband Dave, just as she does with the rest of her Flight Attendant cast.

They are also two projects that are better suited to TV, than they are to film. The reason that The Flight Attendant works so well is that, alongside an excellent cast, it allows its various story strands the time to breathe. Something which Role Play never does. 

There are elements which I wanted it to go into far deeper than it does, but the constraints of it’s runtime meant that it was never able to do this, and Role Play is a prime example of why it is so important to choose the right format for your project. There are too many balls in the air here for a film to handle all of them well enough, whereas a TV show, and the extra time it allows, would have aided this.

There is some good here though.

The first act, in which Emma and Dave try to reignite some passion in their marriage is really good fun. Heading to an upmarket hotel they plan to pretend they have never met before, so they can meet, flirt and drink together in the bar as strangers. It’s a well worn trope in film and TV, but that easy chemistry means that you’re willing to go along with it here.

Unfortunately for them traffic scuppers Daves journey, leaving Emma - sporting a cocktail dress and wig - alone in a bar, and giving Bill Nighy’s immediately suspicious Bob the opportunity to move in.

Nighy and Cuoco, again, have fantastic chemistry here. He is slimy and intrusive, and just wonderful fun to watch. It is a shame that he is not utilised more in Role Play - it feels very much like his schedule meant they only had him for a few hours - but he uses his time on screen incredibly well, chewing the scenery and leaving a lasting impression on the audience.

By the time Dave arrives, under the moniker of Jack Dawson, Bob has got his claws in and is reluctant to let go, and it is obvious that Emmas worlds appear to be on a collision course.

This allows the film to effectively introduce us to both sides of Emmas world. She is there for her husband, to try and rescue her marriage, but is also having to be constantly on the lookout for danger and threats. 

It works well. Unfortunately Role Play cannot take advantage of it for the rest of its runtime. 

The aforementioned chemistry with Oyelowo is a prime example of this. They are wonderful on screen together, yet the film bizarrely decides to separate them for the majority of its second and third acts.

This chemistry should be something that they build the rest of the movie around, but by having them, at times, on different continents it shoots itself in the foot, because you end up spending the rest of the runtime just waiting for them to be reunited. 

It is no coincidence that this first act - in which Cuoco and Oyelowo are on screen together a lot - is easily the films strongest. It is aided by a criminally underused Bill Nighy, but it gets by on the strength of its two leads bouncing off of each other.

Consider the Murder Mystery series. These are, by any measure, not great films, but they do get along based on Adam Sandler and Jennifer Anniston’s chemistry. The films recognise this and ensure that they maximise the amount of time they are on screen together. 

Role Plays lack of recognition of this, and it is one of the key reasons why it will have been all but forgotten in a few months time. 

There is also a distinct lack of logic to the films world. At one point Emma garrottes a women in full view of a train, and then just walks away. Passengers alighting said train don’t bat an eyelid and just get on with their days. But this doesn’t make sense within the films world.

If you take the John Wick series for example, they are over the top and ridiculous, but everything that happens makes sense in the world that they have created. Everything works within the logic of that world.

But there is no such world building here, meaning you have to use the logic of our world. And in our world if you murder someone in full view of a hundred witnesses somebody will probably notice. They might not rush to stop you, but you can guarantee 50 videos of it would pop up on Tiktok within a matter of seconds.

But there is no fallout whatsoever. Emma just walks away. It felt jarring.

Am I taking Role Play too seriously? Probably. But it took me out of the film. And when you’re pitching yourself as a fun, breezy romp finding myself pondering the mechanics of the world, instead of just letting it wash over me, was a problem. 

Despite a strong start by the time Role Play reached its conclusion I had pretty much lost interest in it. It leans far more into action, but it cannot help feel like it is just petering out. Which is what it does.

This is a film I watched less than 24 hours ago, yet I would have a hard time explaining any of the set pieces in any kind of detail. 

It is by no means the worst the action comedy genre has to offer, but it is also nowhere near the best. It languishes somewhere between the two, destined to come and go without ever really making an impression.

The cast looked like they had fun making it, and I’m sure they were paid well for their time, but much like an incompetent hired goon firing blindly at our hero, Role Play misses far more often than it hits.