Toronto International Film Festival 2023: FAIR PLAY

Chloe Domont has made a name for herself directing television including Ballers, Billions, among many more shows, but Fair Play marks her feature debut. Chloe Domont’s film Fair Play–which she wrote and directed– is a tense, captivating exploration of sexual politics located within the fast-paced world of high finance. Fair Play follows young couple Emily (Phoebe Dynevor) and Luke (Alden Ehrenreich) as they navigate their relationship as their careers within the same hedge fund shift and evolve over time, causing tension within their secret relationship. Fair Play is a post #MeToo film, exploring issues of sexual assault and abuse as well as exploring the ingrained toxic masculinity that led us to this world where women are treated as inferior to men. 

Tense Sexual Politics

Fair Play explores how men and women react differently to their partner’s successes. Emily and Luke are keeping their romance a secret as it goes against company policy–and they are both waiting for promotions to make their relationship public. But Emily getting promoted first leads to challenges between the couple. Alden Ehrenreich portrays Luke’s unease at his girlfriend’s success with such subtlety, that we see his excitement as honest and true at first. Until we learn more about his own insecurities and status trapped under the toxic masculinity in which he was raised. 

After her promotion, Luke is assigned to be Emily’s analyst, making him work directly under her, which heightens his insecurities even more and shows just how much Luke has been impacted by the world around him. At first, he seems like a supportive, kind boyfriend, especially in the film’s opening scene. As we dive deeper into the complex relationship between Luke and Emily, we begin to see what he truly thinks about his ingrained toxic thoughts about men and women. 

Phoebe Dynevor’s performance highlights how women are constantly under surveillance of their own feelings both from their bosses and their boyfriends, constantly waiting for them to slip up and do something of which the men in their lives do not approve. Dynevor’s performance captures how Emily is always worrying about six things at once, trying to balance the expectations everyone has of her including her family, and still never being treated like she’s done enough. We feel Emily’s pain and frustration as well as her brief moments of happiness that are undercut by the demeaning way her accomplishments are treated by Luke, who she thought was supportive and nurturing of her aspirations. 

Dynamic, Ever Changing Characters and Relationships

Fair Play generally works as a tense exploration of sexual politics, especially how they change within the workplace. The changes we see in Luke as the film progresses are hauntingly realistic of how men who seem good slowly reveal their sexist tendencies overtime.

Luke goes from being supportive of Emily’s promotion to feeling jeopardized and belittled by her success, feeling like he deserves it more than her because he’s a man and she’s a woman. Ehrenreich plays these changes in Luke with tact, expressing subtle hints even during Luke’s most supportive moments. 

Fair Play introduces the relationship between Emily and Luke showing us a loving couple at home, until they both leave the house, and go in opposite directions, but end up in the same elevator going to their jobs at the same hedge fund. We understand some of their struggles and are introduced to the idea of workplace politics quickly and efficiently.

Ingrained Toxic Masculinity

In addition to exploring how women are treated as inferior in the workplace and their relationships, Fair Play also highlights the dangers of toxic masculinity and how it can infiltrate men, turning them into someone they never wanted to be. Luke starts to listen to self-help seminars which are supposed to be about building confidence but they are really instilling sexist toxic ideals, making him treat Emily as an object. 

Fair Play builds a realistic depiction of a relationship falling apart when a man feels threatened by the success of the woman in his life as if this makes him less of a man. We feel Emily’s pain as she goes through a moment that should be a cause for celebration, but it makes her increasingly more aware of how the world sees women. 

Emily’s career achievements led to her being sexualized and abused both in the office and in her own home, where she used to feel safe and loved. Fair Play does a great job of making us feel sympathy for both Emily and Luke. We see the person Luke was at the beginning of the film and wish he never came in contact with toxic masculinity, but we understand how ingrained this is in our culture, and Fair Play expresses how even the people we trust might show their true colors when they feel threatened by a woman’s power and success. 

Haunting Realism

Fair Play crafts a realistic depiction of the finance world. The film is a complex and compelling thriller that realistically portrays the cutthroat world of finance with all its technical jargon, overwhelmingly high-risk situations, and especially the gender politics within the center of this demanding world. 

Fair Play isn’t telling its audience that they need to know everything about the stock market to understand and engage with the characters and their frantic, fast-talking about whether to buy or sell a specific company’s stock.

Fair Play guides us through this challenging industry, keeping us engaged and interested, even if we have never heard this jargon before in our lives. We hear glimpses of their inside information, just enough to provide a realistic backdrop for the film’s gender politics. 

Costume Design

There are a few moments within Fair Play where characters comment on Emily’s clothing, deeming it too feminine for her new promotion. The idea behind this is a worthy one to explore. Emily is seen as not being right for her job which she earned and is qualified because her clothes have feminine touches like poofy collars.

But the reason this doesn’t quite work and comes across as a little bit strange during these moments is the film seemed scared to give Emily the types of clothes they are talking about as if they were inherently playing into the idea that powerful women can’t wear certain colors or too much lace and frills.

By not going far enough in the costume design, the moments where her clothing is talked about by the men she works with are confusing, since she is already tampering down to appease her coworkers. Watching Fair Play, the frilly collars of Emily’s clothing are barely noticeable, making this point not as impactful as it could have been.

Conclusion:

Fair Play is a hauntingly realistic depiction of toxic masculinity and sexual politics centered within the cutthroat and challenging world of high finance. Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich expertly portray their complex, dynamic characters. 

Fair Play will open in select theaters on Sept. 29 and starts streaming on Netflix on Oct. 6.

Watch Fair Play