Role Play

2 outta 5

Role Play is a film that seems like it should be funnier than the premise/title/trailer leads one to believe. Even the tagline, Every Couple Has Their Secrets and the premise seem like a lower budget version of True Lies which handles the action and comedy much more deftly. There are still funny bits in Role Play as both the leads do have some good comedic chops. But overall, its vibe is more of a serious Lifetime TV movie, as the killer assassin keeping a secret from her husband and kids causes grief when it is revealed. Would one be better served by just rewatching True Lies instead? Very much so! Role Play never finds a consistent tone, action or comedy, settling into something of a rut in the middle. But it isn’t entirely terrible, just somewhat generic.

Emma (Kaley Cuco) is a loving mom to two kids with her husband, Dave (David Oyelowo). What he doesn’t know is that while Emma is constantly leaving for her job, she is an assassin for hire. But since she is killing people, she totally forgot their anniversary. So, to make it up to him, she decides to go out for a romantic night of role playing with her husband at a hotel where they pretend to be different people. But while she is waiting for him, she is hit on by an older man, Bob (Bill Nighy). It turns out he is another assassin for hire and Emma is on the hit-list. After a tense encounter, Emma gets assistance from her handler, Raj (Rudi Dharmalingam). Meanwhile, Dave is talking to a Federal agent, Gwen (Connie Nielsen) who may not be what she seems.

This movie is more serious than a cursory glance would suggest. Role Play is sort of dour and takes the lies between the husband and wife as a source of drama doesn’t particularly work well. Although, there are funny moments in Cuco and Oyelowo’s various reactions. Like when they first meet up at the hotel bar, Dave says his name is “Jack Dawson” and Emma cracks up saying that he’s taking the name of the guy from Titanic. Also, when Dave is told by the agent about Emma’s whole history of violence, he starts laughing, unbelieving.

The scene in the bar when Bob starts hitting on Emma has a couple of good zingers by her as she tries to get the old man to buzz off. Nighy is great as Bob is completely out of his league as he tries to hit on Emma, and he keeps coming up with ideas to stick around. Then the tone changes when he admits he is an assassin looking to collect the bounty on her, and the shift of him from genially dopey to calculating killer is nicely done. The way that Emma gets the upper hand is kind of great as Cuco gets to lay out everything that she did to take him down without him knowing.

It sort of seems like the film is developing Raj the handler as a second fiddle to Emma’s assassin, and Dharmalingam gets to say some serious things about how everyone is chasing her down and then gets popped and disappears from the film. Nielsen as the Federal agent is, sort of inelegantly, revealed to have been the person who trained Emma to be an assassin. There’s no flashback, just Cuco relating their history. It happens so fast the reveal that Gwen was Emma’s assassin teacher is almost easy to miss. Then there’s the third act showdown with Gwen saying that she treated Emma like a daughter where the two assassins face off. It is interestingly staged as it takes place in a forest as they snipe at each other. And Emma has a parting shot at Gwen that is pretty biting.

Cuco in the action scenes is deft. It certainly isn’t John Wick but the reveal that she can brawl is nicely surprising. There’s also a pretty good action scene where she is fighting with a goon and they are using a rope to try to choke each other out. Dave gets in on the action where he must unexpectedly take out a goon to save his kids. Later, the parents lie to the kids when they see the goon slumped over saying that “He’s resting”. Probably the best scene in the movie, as awkwardly crowbarred in it is, is when Gwen forces Emma to take her husband into the forest and shoot him. It is never properly explained why, probably just because Gwen is evil. The way Emma expresses she has to shoot him is a nice bit of acting from Cuco and the look on Dave’s face when it happens is a great moment from Oyelowo. The solution is a bit of a cheat but there are some funny moments like when she says he’ll be fine for a few hours instead of taking him directly to the hospital.

There is a double meaning to the title of Role Play, she is playing the role of a different person to her husband along with the romantic role play they’re engaging in. It doesn’t get much deeper than that, although there are energetic bits. But not enough.