Richard Crouse

A throwback to the erotic thrillers of the 1980s, “Fair Play,” a blistering exploration of workplace gender dynamics, now streaming on Netflix, is a smart, sexy and sharp story of sabotage.

When we first meet Emily and Luke, played by Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich, they are a young couple, very much in love. By night they are a lovey-dovey pair on the verge of getting married.

“I wish we could tell the world,” Luke says.

But they can’t, because by day they work at an aggressive Wall Street financial firm with a strict no fraternization policy. That means all business, no flirting, no batting of eyes, just head-down business analysis.

When a project manager gets fired and escorted out of the building, rumor has it that Luke will take over and get the corner office, and Emily is thrilled for him.

But when the unexpected happens, and Emily is offered the job—“You made half the big calls this quarter alone,” her boss says.—Luke congratulates her but his true feelings are betrayed by the hurt behind his eyes.

Relationship power dynamics shifted, Luke becomes sullen and unpredictable as Emily becomes more powerful and confident. As their relationship erodes, worn away by jealousy, a bruised ego and anger, Luke’s performance at work falters.

“Why is it so hard to accept that I deserve the job?” Emily asks.

“Because I never got the shot,” Luke snorts.

In its examination of the cutthroat world of finance, “Fair Play” treads similar ground as movies like “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “Boiler Room,” but does so from a different perspective. This movie is about the personal toll success can exact when ego, economics and gender dynamics collide.

In her big screen debut director Chloe Domont creates a tense two-hander, an edgy movie that transforms from sweet to sour as its provocative story nears the end credits. There are a handful of other characters, most notably Eddie Marsan as the reptilian big boss at the firm, but this is all about the intense performances from Dynevor and Ehrenreich.

“Bridgerton’s” Dynevor plays Emily, an Ivy Leaguer from humble Long Island beginnings, as a person who has fought her way to success. Her weapons against sexism and office politics are instinct, drive and a work ethic that places her a step ahead of the competition. In a breakout role Dynevor hands in the film’s most subtle performance, capturing the character’s inner reserve of strength necessary to keep her grounded as Luke’s behavior grows more erratic.

Ehrenreich, best known for play Han Solo in “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” has the showier part. He plays Luke as an entitled guy who hasn’t been told “no” enough in his life. As Emily’s star rises at work, his man-child masculinity is threatened, manifesting itself in impotency, anger and finally, violence as he hopscotches through the stages of grief over the shoddy state of his career. Ehrenreich is as outward in his performance as Dynevor is introspective, and is an interesting, if one note, villain.

“Fair Play” is an effective, if slightly overlong, acidic relationship drama, a kind of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” set among the world of high finance and insecure men.