Role Play

There are a number of low ratings and negative reviews for this movie and to me they missed the whole point of this movie. It is mostly a comedy, not to be taken so seriously. My wife and I were entertained.

Kaley Cuoco, who also produced, is the star as Emma Brackett. She is married with two children. She goes out of town on "business" trips but it not the traditional business. Nor is it the career her husband thinks she has. As the trailer for the movie clearly points out, she is an assassin.

She is married to David Oyelowo as Dave Brackett. He is a standard, honest man. One night when he and Emma decide to do something different, they go to a hotel to pretend to be strangers, meet at a bar, and end up in a hotel room together. However that "date" doesn't go as planned. It sets the tone for the rest of the movie.

Bill Nighy is good in everything he is in. Here he is Bob Kellerman who also shows up at the bar. He starts flirting with Emma. In the conversation he drops word hints. It soon becomes obvious to her that he knows who she is and he is in the same profession.

Things develop from there, Emma's husband finds out what she really does, he is mortified. He can't believe it. In the end it becomes a fight for survival.

We watched it at home, streaming on Amazon Prime. Viewed as a dark comedy we found it suitably entertaining.

This is basically a gender swap of Mark Wahlburg's "Family Plan", but without the same level of humor or action. The lead actors are fine, the action sequences are well done but waaaay too short. The story is predictable, the humorous bits garner a chuckle at best. It's great to see Kaley branch out, but this doesn't come close to her performance in "Flight Attendant" on Apple TV. I think she deserves a bigger audience, and I'll continue waiting for her to find that true breakout role so she'll no longer just be Penny from The Big Bang Theory. As others have said, it makes for some fine background noise, but ultimately is pretty forgettable.

I'm not sure if it's intentional, but this is one of the least chemistry couples I've seen in a while. That affects absolutely the entire film. If they don't mention it in the movie, you never know it's a marriage. Cuoco's performance is probably the reason for this, because apart from the action scenes, her participation is quite flat. Understandably, she is a cold-blooded professional, but you are in front of your husband, the reason why you want to get out of the shady business!

Regarding technical details, only the photography and production design are redeemable. The script, editing and soundtrack are pretty bad. For a 100-minute film, they stretch it like chewing gum to become a feature-length film. A truly horrible edition.

Anyway. It doesn't make me want to recommend a movie like this, because it is neither action nor spy, nor a drama.

Can't understand the negativity around this film.

It's not supposed to be taken seriously, it's just a fun movie that doesn't expect you to be gripping your seat arms or biting your nails wondering what's going to happen next.

Kaley Cuoco is as good as she always is, especially as she found out she was pregnant whilst shooting it, and has good support from the rest of the cast throughout the movie, especially from David Oleyowo who I've never seen before.

Connie Nielson is always a good watch and she puts her all into the role.

So just sit back with a glass of wine and some popcorn and forget everything else for a while and enjoy the entertainment.

An uneven script, uncertain directing, and bad casting let this picture down badly. It is a shame, really. Kaley Cuoco, however I don't like her, does a great job as so does David Oyelowo to convince us about a story barely believable. But casting Connie Nielsen as the villain is a very bad joke. It's like casting Sir David Attenborough as Lex Luthor. Her pure physical presence contradicts that. I guess it's the director fault to accept her as the villain in the first place. Then, he rightly proves himself unable to bring out the 'beast' of her, which is understandable. She is nothing like that. The camerawork is OK, so is the score, but otherwise it's just another film you will forget almost instantly after watching. As I said earlier, it's a shame. Waste of talent.