Role Play 100 minutes, Prime Video Two stars
Since her run on the popular sitcom The Big Bang Theory came to a close, Kaley Cuoco has turned her hand to producing most of the work she appears in.
And it's clear that she's after more challenging, nuanced fare than the by-the-numbers show about geeks and their hot friend provided.
Her latest project as star and producer is Role Play, a middling and somewhat entertaining action comedy on Prime Video.
There are moments where you can see some of the magic that made Cuoco's exceptional mystery comedy The Flight Attendant so good, but they are fleeting and in the end only serve to remind you that this film is not what you were hoping it would be.
The film follows married couple Emma and Dave (David Oyelowo, Selma), who have just notched up their seventh wedding anniversary.
But Dave doesn't know what Emma really does for a living - travelling the world as an assassin for hire.
On a special anniversary date night where the couple decide to role play as strangers and "bump" into each other at a New York hotel bar, things take a turn for the chaotic. Emma is spotted by another shady operative, and her cover is blown.
Said shady operative is played by none other than Bill Nighy, in a small but memorable and highly enjoyable role. The appearance of Oscar-nominee Nighy gives this movie more respect than it perhaps deserves, but if there's any opportunity to put the Brit in your film, you should take it.
With Emma now forced to jet set once more to avoid the generic baddies who are after her, Dave must come to terms with the fact that the life he thought he had is quite different to the one he's really living.
Oyelowo does a great job with the character, oscillating between confused, loving husband and righteously indignant as the situation calls for it. He and Cuoco have an easy chemistry, and the film probably could have benefitted from putting them together for more of the runtime.
Role Play rolls along pretty well with decent action pieces and some cute comedy until the third act, where the wheels start to come off.
The climactic showdown, which takes place in Germany, feels very generic and tired. The stakes never feel very high, which they shouldn't in a comedy, and the bad guys don't seem that difficult to dispose of. Cuoco and Oyelowo are both committed to their roles, but the writing lets them down at the end, wrapping things up in a pretty unsatisfying manner.
It's a surprise considering the director, Thomas Vincent, worked on the taut, tense and highly entertaining 2018 action series Bodyguard, starring Richard Madden.
Role Play is quite reminiscent of Mr and Mrs Smith, which is maybe intentional on the part of the Amazon Studios marketing team. The streamer's reimagined take on the married spy couple, as a series which stars Donald Glover and Maya Erskine, arrives in less than a month's time. Perhaps Role Play was released now to prepare viewers for their spy series.
