PLAYERS -- An Obnoxious and Unexceptional Romantic Comedy

Review by Camden Ferrell

Starting out as a director for music videos, Trish Sie is now an established feature film director of films like Pitch Perfect 3 and last year’s Sitting in Bars with Cake. Her newest film, Players, is the obligatory Netflix Valentine’s Day release. It also serves as the feature film debut of veteran television writer Whit Anderson. Even though the cast has mildly decent chemistry, this romantic comedy hits narrative beats that have been beaten to death while clinging to awkward and exaggerated tropes.
 
Mack is a sportswriter for a local New York paper and spends her free time hanging out with her longtime best friends. These friends have spent years devising a meticulous system of “plays” in order to hook up with their desired target. However, things get complicated when Mack decides she wants to finally play for keeps. Obviously, this movie will require some suspensions of disbelief, but it still had the potential to remain grounded and relatable, and this doesn’t get capitalized on at all.
 
Anderson’s script flows exactly as one would expect it to. At no point in the movie, did the writing take me somewhere even remotely unexpected. While adhering to the story structure that romcoms seem to love isn’t inherently bad, this movie fails to add its own flair at all. The story does nothing to distinguish itself from other romcoms, and it feels borderline soulless. The dialogue is cheesy and unrealistic, and it never flows well. The characters feel exaggerated to the point of annoyance. They’re too excessive to be relatable, and they manage to occasionally become displeasing to a viewer.

​There isn’t much I can praise about the movie, but I will say its acting is probably its strongest aspect. It’s clear this ensemble is doing the best they can with the material given, and it goes about as well as expected. The movie is led by Gina Rodriguez, and she has proven she can give strong performances in romcoms, and her newest effort as Mack is passable. It’s not a memorable role with her, but it is a role that benefits a lot from her natural charm. The best actor in this film is Damon Wayans Jr. who also brings his signature charm to a movie that desperately needs it. The rest of the cast of actors like Tom Ellis, Augustus Prew, and Joel Courtney among others are decent albeit a little overblown.
 
It may seem like I’m being too harsh on a lighthearted and mindless romcom, but it really fails to do anything for me. It’s a specific brand of cheesiness that is insufferable more often than not. There are plenty of romcoms that endear me and audiences with their cheesiness and adherence to genre conventions, but this is not one of them. It’s an overacted film that devolves into caricature and fails to connect to your emotions in any earnest way.
 
Players is a movie that you have definitely seen before, and it’s one you could predict within seconds of watching it. Your mileage may vary, but there isn’t a whole lot working in this movie’s favor. It is embarrassingly excessive at times, and at its best, it’s a mildly entertaining buddy comedy that is carried primarily by its good-looking and charming cast.
 
Players is streaming on Netflix February 14.
 
Rating: 2/5