Fair Play’s Brutal Ending (Including Knife Scene) Explained By Director

Fair Play’s brutal ending is thoroughly explained by the movie director Chloe Domont. The Netflix thriller follows Emily Meyers and Luke Edmunds, a young couple working at a ruthless New York hedge fund, as they attempt to navigate the muddy waters of the Wall Street world while keeping their passionate relationship a secret. The movie stars Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich as Emily and Luke, respectively, and they are joined by other cast members like Eddie Marsan, Rich Sommer, Sebastian de Souza, and Patrick Fischler.

Following the release of Fair Play on streaming, Domont discussed the movie’s brutal ending with Netflix. The director explains the last scene is not necessarily about female revenge as many might think. She states that it’s more about holding a man accountable for his actions and getting him to face his own inferiority. She also adds that the ending scene was tricky to shoot, especially because they tried to interrupt the actor’s performances as little as possible. Read her full comments below:

“While there are elements of female rage, the last scene is not about female revenge, it’s about holding a man accountable and getting him to face his own inferiority. Luke’s inability to own up to that causes both of them so much pain and so much destruction. For me, the whole film really builds up to the moment when Emily finally gets Luke to acknowledge his own failure and his own weakness, when he finally mutters the words ‘I’m nothing’ — because more than being a film about female empowerment, this is really a film about male fragility.

It was a tricky scene with stunts and special effects and, of course, demanding [in terms of] performance. I wanted Phoebe to lean into Emily’s pain, which ultimately fuels her fury. And the more we could get Emily’s pain to drive her actions in that final scene, the more empathetic those actions would be. No matter how ugly they are, we as the audience will understand where she’s coming from and why she chooses to act out in this way. Phoebe delivered that on the most heartbreaking level. You feel her pain, and even her love, pulsing through that scene. She knocked it out of the park.”

Why Fair Play Is Getting Well-Received By Critics

Fair Play currently sits as one of Netflix’s best-reviewed movies of this year. This romantic thriller has an impressive 87% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, making it one of the best-reviewed English-language thrillers on the platform this year. Critics have showered enormous praise on the movie since its premiere earlier in the year, and it bests other major Netflix thrillers of 2023, such as Heart of Stone, Reptile, and The Pale Blue Eye, which all have significantly lower ratings on Rotten Tomatoes.

One of the major praises for Fair Play is its extremely meticulous and measured approach to probing the male ego while also exploring some of the difficulties faced by women who attempt to climb up the ladder of power in a male-dominated field, such as Wall Street. However, the thriller’s gripping tension doesn’t just come from the workplace imbalance between Emily and Luke — there’s also a deeper incompatibility on display between the two.

Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich have also received a lot of praise from critics for their work on Fair Play, as both actors put on a masterful performance, carefully depicting the male-female workplace power dynamic. Domont’s writing and directing were also very sharp and skillful, making her feature movie debut thoroughly engaging, and it’ll be interesting to see what she does next.

Source: Netflix