The thrill part is not thrilling enough in this comedic thriller
film: Role Play
Director: Thomas Vincent
Cast: Kaley Cuoco, David Oyelowo, Bill Nighy, Connie Nielsen, Rudi Dharmalingam and Simon Delaney
Nonika Singh
Role Play has a fun and rather interesting premise and an underlying serious and intelligent note too. A seemingly normal wife, a mother of two happens to be an assassin. Before her identity comes to the fore and rocks the boat of domestic bliss, to spice up things husband Dave (David Oyelowo) and his lovely other half, Emma (Kaley Cuoco) decide to role play, in short, act out.
Pretending to be strangers they decide to meet in a bar. But before they can whip up some exciting sexual tension, they come across a real stranger. Bob Kellerman (Bill Nighy) appears on the scene dramatically enough and heightens the drama, at least for a while. His identity too is a mystery.
A twist and things truly heat up and role play turns on its head. Not merely for the strange encounter leads them into trouble but also for rather cleverly the director Thomas Vincent and writer Seth Owen point towards the role reversal. Damsel in distress! But who exactly needs to be saved here?
In the answer lies the play on Role Play. But while the concept appears more enticing on paper, in execution it runs the predictable distance. Who the cold blooded killer aka Emma nay Anna will choose when the push comes to a shove is pretty evident and holds no major surprise.
Thus the thrill part is not thrilling enough in this comedic thriller where once the major reveal is out, there isn’t much to keep you in suspense, let alone on tenterhooks. While the first half-an-hour is suitably energised and you love the husband-wife bonding as well as the flirtatious overtures of Bob with some smart one-liners thrown in, the last half- an-hour with a kill here and there is rather pedestrian. What is consistent, however, is the exceptional acting. Be it Emmy-nominated actor David Oyelowo as the clueless, hapless husband or The Big Bang Theory fame star Kaley Cuoco or even those playing out cameos, especially Nighy as the smooth operator, actors elevate the script. Oyelowo is so good with his expressions, which say it all, especially when he discovers who his wife of seven years really is. And the heroine Cuoco is in command, as good with action as emotion. Connie Nielsen (remember her in Ridley Scott’s magnum opus Gladiator and Wonder Woman) is impactful too as the ruthless mentor of Emma. Of course, Rudi Dharmalingam of Trinidadian and Sri Lankan heritage as her handler gets to do little and we hear him more than we see him. While his name Rajendra Bakshi piques our interest, his character in the film is far from engrossing.
Only if the French director Knight, who incidentally directed the first episode of season one of Reacher, currently streaming on the same platform that is Amazon Prime Video, had found the heady balance of comedy and action. The touch is light, especially the music by Rael Jones but not enough to truly pep up our spirits. In the climax our gutsy heroine says, ‘I have a plan’. Wish the makers had a better one in place. In the present scheme of things, it ends up as just another film that ran but did not arrive at any major goalposts. Not exactly tedious, just about watchable.
