Role Play, 2024.
Directed by Thomas Vincent.
Starring David Oyelowo, Kaley Cuoco, Bill Nighy, Connie Nielsen, Rudi Dharmalingam, Lucia Aliu, Reagan Bryan-Gudgeon, Simon Delaney, Sonita Henry, Jade-Eleena Dregorius, Julia Schunevitsch, Stephanie Levi-John, Steffen Jung, Betty Kaplan, Dong Hyun Yoon, Matthias Schmidt, Moritz Berg, Angus McGruther, and Dominic Holmes.
SYNOPSIS:
Emma has a wonderful husband and two kids in the suburbs of New Jersey. She also has a secret life as an assassin for hire, a secret that her husband Dave discovers when the couple decides to spice up their marriage with a little role play.
Movies are not always what we expect them to be, and that’s fine. What should be reviewed is always the film itself. With that said, one consistently wonders what in the world director Thomas Vincent (working with screenwriter Seth W. Owen) was thinking flat-out ignoring the inherent fun that could be mined within the plot of Role Play, leaving its talented stars Kaley Cuoco and David Oyelowo playing the premise for too straightfaced and dramatic.
The film bafflingly abandons the role-playing dynamic to become another generic movie about a contract killer hiding that aspect of their life from their spouse and family until everyone gets wrapped up in clichéd danger.
Emma and Dave (the previously mentioned Kaley Cuoco and David Oyelowo) love one another as they raise their two children, but also find that their marriage has become a bit complacent and stale, especially when the former is so busy traveling for work (she has an assortment of lies prepared to keep him off her murderous trail) that she forgets about their anniversary. Soon after, role-playing becomes a topic of conversation, and they decide to spice up their love life by creating aliases and bumping into each other at a hotel, where they will continue the scenario from there.
Meanwhile, Emma’s handler Raj (Rudi Dharmalingam), advises against this as a rival group has a bounty on her (alive), warning that it wouldn’t be a good idea to mingle in public as there might be assassins on the hunt. Emma makes a choice to live her life and go to the hotel, encountering an older gentleman (Bill Nighy) claiming to work in finance and getting chatty with her until David steps in.
Eventually, they go their separate ways, and the role-play continues, at least until Emma sneaks off in the middle of the night to finish off this man, who is clearly one of the bounty hunters. It’s also the only segment that is mildly amusing and somewhat capitalizes on the film’s premise; everything else is uninspired well-covered ground.
Naturally, a police investigation begins, and one assumes that this is where the filmmakers will begin exploring the action romantic comedy angle, with two suspects who were there under fake names. That couldn’t be any further from reality, as Role Play doubles down on drama, with a government agent played by Connie Nielsen interrogating Dave by asking about the now missing Emma (she has gone on another trip attempting to clear her name off the bounty list) and revealing her true identity and job.
This film seems to have been conceived with the idea of a family person hiding their contract killer persona as an allegory for role-playing, proceeding to do nothing with that idea beyond excessive amounts of bland and trite drama where Dave questions everything about his life and marriage.
Technically, there is some combat (although the first action sequence, discounting the swift prologue, doesn’t come until nearly an hour in), but it all ends as fast as it begins without giving Kaley Cuoco much to do. The filmmakers are more interested in lazily turning her into a generic master of disguise. There isn’t much here to actually convince us that she has been an efficient contract killer for decades now. As for David Oyelowo, he is working overtime to find a shred of depth within this character unsure of what’s next for his marriage and what his following steps should be.
However, in taking itself all so seriously, Role Play frequently comes across as awkward and feels hollow, as if it forgot what would separate it apart from every other underwhelming take on this subgenre. The movie needs more play and less floundering melodrama.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
