Netflix film “Fair Play”, which was released on last Friday, is a tense and disturbing thriller drama about one supposedly cool office relationship deteriorated by toxic office environment. Alternatively chilling and harrowing, the movie often feels like watching the slow-motion clip of a car accident to happen sooner or later, and we come to brace ourselves more as its two lead characters are gradually heading toward to the inevitable conclusion waiting for them.

The movie mainly revolves around a young couple named Emily (Phoebe Dynevor) and Luke (Alden Ehrenreich ). They fell in love with each other while working at some prestigious hedge fund company in New York City, but they have been hiding their romantic relationship from others in the company, even though they have actually lived together for a while. When they go to their workplace early in the morning, they do not come there together for avoiding any suspicion, and, so far, they have been having things under control pretty well at the company.

Probably because secret makes their romance all the more exciting, Emily and Luke do not feel that uncomfortable about the current state of their relationship. As a matter of fact, they have felt more attracted to each other, and they even come to have a quick sex while attending the wedding party of Luke’s brother. When it later turns out that Luke bought a ring for their official engagement, Emily cannot possibly be more excited, and she does not hesitate at all to accept his impromptu proposal.

Meanwhile, the mood in their workplace becomes a little more agitated than usual. There comes a chance of promotion as one senior analyst gets fired, and Emily hears from others that Luke may be the one to fill that empty spot in question. However, not long after they celebrate for that in private, things turn out to be quite different from what they expected. As a matter of fact, the CEO of their company, played by Eddie Marsan with a steely sense of unforgiving ruthlessness, has set his eyes on Emily because of her more distinguished resume and more promising record, and he personally notifies to her after calling for her at late night.

While surely disappointed a lot by this unexpected outcome, Luke sincerely congratulates Emily, and Emily appreciates that, but the discord in their relationship becomes apparent to us right from when Emily begins the first day as his boss. The more she advances day by day, the more he gets frustrated due to their changed office relationship, though she promises that she will help him get promoted someday.

And we get to see more of how toxic and competitive their office environment can be. Usually surrounded by her boss and many male employees, Emily is constantly pressured to excel herself more, and she manages to pull that off for a while, but then her boyfriend gradually becomes a major impediment for her in one way or another. When Luke eagerly persuades her to make a risky investigation decision, she has some understandable doubt, and, what do you know, she soon finds herself taking care of a considerable financial mess caused by him.

As the boss curtly points out to Emily at one point, Luke is not so better than many of other analysts in the company. In fact, he has benefited a bit from his male privilege since he was hired some time ago, and he has been already expected to go sooner or later. No matter how much he tries, he only makes him look more pathetic to not only Emily but also others in the company, and you may wince a lot when he comes to make himself quite embarrassing in front of others later in the story.

While quite exasperated with how their private relationship gets more estranged because of their office problem, Emily also feels quite frustrated with the toxic office culture surrounding her, which is mainly driven by male ego and aggressiveness. She is sometimes expected to show that she can be, uh, bold enough to hang around her male co-workers, and she must also handle more demand and expectation from her boss, who does not mind at all calling her in the middle of night just for business talk. No, he seems to be your typical workaholic too busy to be interested in exploiting her sexually, though he does not hesitate to show his blatant sexism from time to time.

The screenplay by director/writer Chloe Domont, who previously made several short films before making a feature film debut here, slowly accumulates the tension inside Emily and Luke’s relationship here and there along the story. Around the point where Emily is almost close to a sort of breaking point, the tension beneath the screen is palpable to say the least, and everything in the story eventually culminates to a very disturbing moment which functions as a counterpoint to the opening scene of the film.

Domont’s two lead performers are pitch perfect as their characters are drifted away from love and intimacy and then tumbled into estrangement and resentment. While Phoebe Dynevor, who has been mainly known for her supporting turn in Netflix drama series “Bridgerton”, is showier as her character become more conflicted among her complex emotions about her increasingly problematic boyfriend, Alden Ehrenreich, who has been a new talented actor to watch since his breakout turn in the Coen Brothers’ “Hail, Ceasar!” (2016), is ably supports her in addition to being believable in his character’s negative change along the story, and the movie is certainly supported a lot by their fluidly dynamic chemistry on the screen.

On the whole, “Fair Play” works well thanks to its sharp handling of story and characters as well as the two engaging performances at its center, and it is certainly one of the better offerings from Netflix during this year. While it is mainly about how tricky office romance can be, the movie will also surely make some of you think twice about working in hedge fund company, and I am glad that my current workplace is much less mild compared to that.