From the start, Fair Play feels mildly unsettling. A young couple, Luke (Alden Ehrenreich) and Emily (Phoebe Dynevor), clearly drunk, are making out in a restroom while avoiding a marriage gathering they were invited to. Luke attempts to perform oral sex on Emily, but gets blood on his face. Clearly this is from Emily's unexpected period. While rummaging through his pockets, he drops a ring on the floor. “What the hell is that?” Emily asks. Luke recovers the ring and somewhat awkwardly faces Emily and proposes to her. Emily says, "You’re drunk.” Luke says, “I thought of it before I was drunk.” Emily accepts.
There is a lot of drinking in this film. In the form of orders at the bar, and half drunk bottles on the living room floor. I was surprised by how prevalent it was. These characters work in the financial sector, a high pressure setting with a lot of money at stake which justifies this imbibing of potent spirits to some extent. In the context of the film, alcohol played a huge role in Luke and Emily’s lives. It acts as a way for them to relieve stress, but also as a way to suppress the more problematic thoughts and feelings that put a relationship at risk.