Kaley Cuoco

David Oyelowo

Bill Nighy

Connie Nielsen

Rudi Dharmalingam

Lucia Aliu

Reagan Bryan-Gudgeon

Simon Delaney

Sonita Henry

Jade-Eleena Dregorius

Julia Schunevitsch

Stephanie Levi-John

Steffen Jung

Betty Kaplan

Dong Hyun Yoon

Matthias Schmidt

Moritz Berg

Angus McGruther

Dominic Holmes

Jonathan Failla

Stacy Thunes

Cornell Adams

Steven Stalder

Erkan Sulcani

Thomas Vincent

Seth W. Owen

Andrew Rona

George F. Heller

Andrew Baldwin

Alex Heineman

Christoph Fisser

Luc Etienne

Rael Jones

Mariana Vasconcellos

Matt Challenor

Alois Knapps

Marco Bittner Rosser

Cornelia von Braun

Volkhart Buff

John Papsidera

Carl Woebcken

Jenna Smith

Hélène Irdor

Roxane Fechner

Henning Molfenter

Eric Ford

Nick Angel

Shana Eddy-Grouf

Wolfgang Metschan

Benoît Hillebrant

Adolf Wojtinek

Anna Marsh

Mona May

Katey Lee Carson

Rickie-Lee Roberts

Manuel Vogt

Billy Buff

Monette Moio

Maxime Alexandre

Ingeborg Heinemann

Laurent Demianoff

Reiner Bajo

Christian Petersson

Sébastien Peres

Björn L. Hübscher

Gareth C. Scales

Felix Audu

Ron Halpern

Anja Müller

Action

Comedy

Romance

Role Play

StudioCanal

The Picture Company

Studio Babelsberg

France

Germany

United States of America

English

Español

assassin

berlin, germany

husband wife relationship

secret life

submissive

hired killer

secretive wife

clueless husband

mother daughter relationship

woman spy

cliché

Manuel São Bento

FULL SPOILER-FREE REVIEW @ https://www.firstshowing.net/2024/review-cuoco-oyelowos-role-play-film-is-not-a-bad-start-to-2024/

"Role Play follows expectations, both good and bad. While the main performances, particularly from Kaley Cuoco, breathe life into the characters, most of the supporting cast falls prey to uninspired dialogue. The narrative, though formulaic and predictable, maintains a rather lively pace, ensuring a sustained interest.

As a few other issues emerge, these are somewhat compensated by the filmmaker's commitment to providing a light-hearted, fun, entertaining movie that aims to offer families a good time without much seriousness."

Rating: B-

CinemaSerf

Anyone remember Henry Goulding's "Assassin Club" (2023)? Well if you add that in with the repetitive bits from "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" (2005) then you will arrive at something akin to this unremarkable thriller. "Emma" (Kaley Cuoco) is married to "Dave" (David Oyelowo) but she has a secret. She's part of an international organisation that gets paid to kill folk. She wants to leave that organisation and so it declares open season. Meantime she and her husband decide to celebrate their anniversary by hooking up in an hotel bar and pretending that they'd never met before - an opportunity for some good on fashioned courting and a few vodka Martinis. Enter the scene saving Bill Nighy as the ostensibly single old fellow alone in the hotel trying to hit on her. Of course, he's not quite what he seems and a slightly comedic scenario ensues. Sadly, though, thereafter this is all just a standard cat and mouse adventure with loads of set piece out of the frying pan into the fire escapades that gradually draw in her unwitting husband, their children and of course some family baggage from her past courtesy of Connie Nielsen. As ever, the menacing baddies couldn't shoot their way out of a rice-paper bag and her ninja skills become the stuff of "Kung Fu" - only without any sense of mystery or subtlety. The acting is stiff and the dialogue must have taken a few more Martinis to concoct before resorting to the "Janet and John" book of college film scripting. I wonder just how many more deadly killers there are lurking around the suburbs of small American towns! Fills the television screen whilst you're doing the ironing, maybe - it certainly does not need your full concentration!

Role Play is a rather tepid affair, that fails to cash in on its comedic potential. 

There's a lot of scope for comedy in Role Play but the script fails to deliver the laughs. What you get instead, is an exposition driven action film, with a reluctant assassin back story, that's all too familiar.

In summary, works as a a simple action film but its not exactly original, nor is it especially funny.

Emma Confronts Bob In His Hotel Room

Emma and Dave Are Persons of Interest

Planning the Role Play

Official Trailer

Role Play( 2023)

Every couple has their secrets.

Overview

Top Billed Cast

Social

A review by Manuel São Bento

Written by Manuel São Bento on Fri Jan 12 2024

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