Well, it’s that time of year, when love is supposed to be in the air and viewers get new rom-coms to enjoy. And hopefully, fall in love with. Players is Netflix’s latest offering. While it does encourage viewers to cheer a bit, Players is a film that coasts by too much on the appeal of its cast. The game they’re given to play needed to be more interesting.
Players stars Gina Rodriguez as Mack, a newswriter who covers local sports in New York City. She and her friends Adam (Damon Wayans Jr.), Brannagan (Augustus Prew), and Little (Joel Courtney) have a great time running “plays” to score one-night stands. They’re all really a team for each other. Then Mack successfully hooks up with Nick (Tom Ellis) and decides she wants more than just a “play” this time. So she convinces her friends to help her score a relationship, not just a one-night stand. Of course, things don’t turn out the way she planned. We could’ve guessed that would happen, right? Stories like this gain traction when the characters have to face the unexpected.
However, the fact that we can anticipate the general emotional beats is not a flaw. Players scores a hit but not a home run because it sometimes muddles its tropes with unlikeable details. The cast is an asset but their abilities elevate the story instead of the other way around.
“This team does not recognize the word impossible.”
Mack is not only friends with Adam and Brannagan, she works with them too. (Meanwhile, Little is Brannagan’s younger brother, hence his nickname.) You might think this is too much togetherness. But this group is a found family for each other. You can tell it would take a lot for any romantic connection to overshadow the bonds they have built amongst each other. At the beginning of the story, they all seem satisfied with the way things are.
We do learn, though, that Mack and Adam dated in college. That’s our first hint at where the story is actually going to end up. But Mack needs to mature and realize she wants more substance in her romantic life. It’s difficult to know whether this would have happened eventually anyway or if something about Nick specifically prompts it. After all, he is played by Tom Ellis, who has charm to spare. Either explanation would be understandable.
That is an indication of something this film could do better. The script establishes a pleasant rapport between Mack and Nick. When things shift to sour their relationship, Nick’s character has to be shifted a bit as well. It’s jarring. A friends-to-lovers trope like Mack and Adam, on the other hand, is also enjoyable. What’s missing between those two characters is an occasional strong sexual undertone to their interactions. You get the sense of an easy affection between them but you’re never quite begging them to kiss. It’s nice to see them happy though.
“I’ve always wanted to see how old people date.”
Another element that needs more intensity is the comedy. To begin with, it takes effort to look past the manipulative way Mack and her friends operate their sexual lives. Their deceptions don’t always work but that doesn’t make up for much. These are sometimes elaborate ploys they are using on other people, and they feel dishonest no matter if the other person is also only looking for a fling. Their bickering over which “play” to use or whose turn is next only achieves superficial humor.
I wanted to laugh more during this film, and I wanted the comedy to come from a more clever place. Brannagan has way too many bodily function jokes, for one thing. Gross isn’t always funny to me. There is also a line about Dick Van Dyke being in the hospital and having his obituary ready to print. There is too much darkness underlying a joke like that for my taste. (I mean, Van Dyke is 98, he very well could have passed away before the film premiered.) There’s also a slightly stale bit that Nick can’t tell the difference between Star Wars and Star Trek. In general, you can call the comedy good but not great.
The reason why these things seem less noticeable than they could have is the actors. Rodriguez is a true star, with an easy command of the lead role. Wayans is someone who’s always been enjoyable to watch as well. Of the supporting players, I was particularly tickled by Courtney as Little. The earnest kid from J.J. Abrams’s Super 8 in this role is a treat. This group of performers vibes quite well together, and they are this film’s biggest selling point. Players may not knock it out of the park but it is a rom-com that makes decent use of its time at bat.
3 stars out of 5
Players is streaming on Netflix.
