Play Pretend Film Review

Star rating: 5/5

Writer: Sophie- Dominique Parea

Director: Sophie- Dominique Parea

Starring: Ana Parvu, Damian Reyes- Fox

This beautiful romantic drama written by Sophie- Dominique Parea asks the audience, softly: what do they think love is?

Play Pretend is an incisive, wonderfully simple portrait of true emotional intimacy. This is done with a cast of two. Charlie and an unnamed female character (this is a problem) are our characters: two twenty-somethings who have been friends for some time and share their thoughts about navigating today’s dating world in a city, possibly London. They are the only characters in this sparse, thoughtful and precise script, in which we see the characters go through a huge, puzzling change in their bond.

When an energy shifts in a deep relationship, it is hard to grasp and inhabit. Play Pretend portrays this fact of love and life really powerfully. ‘Relationships are trial and error’, says Charlie. The point is whether those errors can be surmounted. Our female character, on the other hand, does not believe in 'happily ever after' and is more about bottling perfect but ephemeral moments if she could. What will they conclude as they chat for a long time over wine, before she goes on a date? Ana Parvu and Damian Reyes-Fox give us brilliant, paced, get-under-your-skin performances to take us on this journey. In a humorous, original scene, the characters start mixing English with the languages of their heritage- in which they say things that are not contrary to but go even deeper than what they are saying to each other in this dialogue. Brilliant, original writing that makes sense as Charlie and his friend know each other since young and are therefore familiar with but cannot fully understand or speak each other’s ancestral languages.

Technically, Play Pretend showcases brilliant simplicity- this is a less is more approach. It features an eye-catching full length shot of Charlie smoking outside his front door, and this is brought full circle in the final scene. The locations are homely, fully in tune with the script’s intimacy: Charlie’s front door, his kitchen and his living room, and the cinematography is warm. The film also features inspired use of sound at the very end, almost as the credits roll, to suggest the real conclusion to the conversation we have been witnessing between our characters. A word also on the choice of title- which creatively poses the question, what are our characters pretending? To love, or not to love? In any case, that is always the question.