Mikes Film Talk

Role Play (2024): is deja vu all over again on Amazon Prime. (Thanks to the late, great Yogi Berra for that deja vu jewel.) It is not necessarily Amazon’s fault per se, but. The film, not unlike Ghosted, and several other older movies, features a couple, or in Ghosted the start of becoming a couple, offers what is becoming a cliche or more technically a trope by now.

who is in it?

Kaley Cuoco is Emma Brackett, an assassin for hire. She is married to David Oyelowo, a former journalist photographer. Seth W Owen, All Nighter, scribes a tale of an odd couple who have their lives turned upside down when Brackett gets her name put on a hit list. (Nod to John Wick here.)

This couple, again not unlike previous cookie cut0uts of this formula, feature a strong partner and a “weaker” one. In Ghosted, the female protagonist was not only a woman who could do practically anything, who is paired up with a real Wilbur Milquetoast.

Connie Nielsen (Wonder Woman, Gladiator) seems a bit wasted in the film. Her role could have been larger. Backstory is only briefly mentioned and while Nielsen, as usual, dominates any scene she is in, was not much more than a 2D character.

Perhaps the best thing in this luke warm feature is the presence of Bill Nighy. His cameo is not overly long, but like everything else this actor works on, he is memorable. Nighy almost steals Role Play with one gesture as he leaves the hotel bar.

Rated R?

Somewhat remarkably, Role Play is rated R. Watching the movie, it is hard to understand why. As a rule sex is the big no-no. Violence usually will not affect the rating very much, depending on the amounts of gore available to the viewer onscreen.

Broken down, there is no sex, nudity, some mild cursing and the violence is darn near bloodless. One can only assume the R rating was because of Cuoco’s character murdering people for hire.

This is not John Wick. The Keanu Reeves vehicle has an R because of “Language, drug use/bloody violence.” It also had an astronomical body count. There is almost a negligible death rate in Role Play. The movie also features one really drawn out fight between Brackett and her guard.

One.

All Things being equal

Role Play looks good. Director Thomas Vincent crosses those t’s and dots the i’s. But all things being equal, the film belongs on a straight to streamer format. As a paying customer, I would have felt a tad ripped off if I’d seen it at the cinema.

The movie is billed as a comedy/action/romance. To an extent I agree with these labels. However the comedy is not “slap your thigh” guffaw type of laughs. Some chuckles? Surely. Romance is there, but the action is doled out carefully, stingily for whatever reason

The Verdict and the trailer

The verdict on the “deja vu all over again” AKA rehashed odd couple story, is another 3.5 stars out of 5. It delivers. It entertains and looks good while doing so. But it most definitely is nothing to write home about. The two child actors are very good though: Lucia Aliu and Regan Bryan-Gudgeon are two actors to keep an eye on.

Check the Role Play trailer and it if looks like your cup of tea, head over to Amazon Prime and check it out.