Best part of this five-episodes movie is the opening sequence, with a bickering couple on their way to a holiday in the Maldives. She is suspicious of his activities. When they board the plane, he falls asleep, she pushes his thumb on his smartphone, forgotten of the seat and she starts screaming.
You get the idea the plot will be funny, albeit in a predictable way, but unfortunately the following episodes are a slow descent into the abysmally silly.
1) A woman tricks her husband of over ten years to confess his affair only to let him know that she also cheated. Then the two have hot sex.
2) A pathetic salesman tries desperately to "score" during a team building event with overnight stay in a hotel. Even a married 52 yo colleague rejects him.
3) The weirdest episode: sad-sack guy lies to his wife about going to watch basketball, while he actually goes to a fancy brothel. The wife discovers him, but doesn't mind.
4) A rich guy caught in a luxury hotel room with his lover convinces his gullible wife that she's delusional.
5) Three friends have dinner in a fancy restaurant. Two of them confess they would gladly have sex with 90% of the women of the world. The third points out that they are narcissists who just like themselves. Camera pans to a couple of "women" the guys said they fancied, only to reveal it's them in drags.
On a side note, Scamarcio who used to be the sexy boy of Italian cinema turned into an unremarkable middle-aged guy with a nasty streak.
All the interior scenes take place in fancy, luxury surroundings and I was often distracted by the quality of the furniture and the design, which is a clear sign of how bad the script and the execution was. Still, the interior design deserves the extra point.
Plot summary
Bickering spouses make their way from taxi to airport to plane to the sky on their way to the Maldives for vacation. She's full of accusations, he's (Massimiliano Gallo) full of excuses, and it's not until he's asleep during the flight that she looks at his phone and screams, right over the beginning of the credits sequence. The next mini-film is relatively heavy drama, and plays out during one late night, with Mastandrea playing a husband whose wife (Valentina Cervi) pries and pries and pries until he spills every detail about an affair he had. In another short, Scamarcio is a salesman on the road, in a hotel for a conference; he thinks he's suave, tells jokes that make the listeners feel as if they're in prison, and hits on anything that moves. He eventually ends up in a co-worker's room, desperately cajoling her to sleep with him. He's very grabby which is very "funny" (read: not funny) and a laughingstock among the other salespeople - Mastandrea is one of them, who actually succeeds with the ladies - but he either isn't aware or doesn't care. The next short stars Mastandrea as a sad bald man who routinely visits the glory hole at a local brothel - yes, until his wife (Marina Fois) begins to suspect something's up. I think that one's supposed to be funny, because it has a punchline. Another finds Mastandrea playing a cad-and-three-quarters who gaslights the living shit out of his poor wife (Laura Chiatti) when she tries to nail him down. Like, he has her committed. Comedy. And finally, in the last bit, Mastandrea, Scamarcio and Gallo play three pals at a fancy restaurant talking about which women in the room they'd sleep with.
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Five short stories of betrayal among the rich and shallow
Not great but definitely entertaining.
"The Players" isn't politically correct nor is it for all audiences but it's zany characters and storylines make for an entertaining watch.
In this comedy, a collection of vignettes captures the foolishness of several men as they fumble with fidelity and relationships.
Riccardo Scamarcio holds ground in this Italian remake of the French film "Les Infidèles". Fast paced and at times over the top, "The Players" works best when the three main characters are on screen together (which unfortunately isn't very often). However, the film does offer laughs when you'd feel the most uncomfortable. It's a decent enough remake with definite Italian flare.
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A bit of wasted potential
Among the reviews there's one "2" justified by the fact that's hard to follow the film with subtitles...Probably shouldn't give a film a bad review if you couldn't grasp nuances due to not understanding its language?
All in all, if you do speak the language, it is a quirky and irreverent film that -I believe- won't bore you. It could have been better in many ways but saying more would trigger spoilers :)