Novelist Jung-ho (Lee Dong-gyoo) moves his wife Ji-soo (Kim Jin-seon) and typewriter into his old family home, where he met – and lusted after – his childhood sweetheart. As he writes a book detailing the reasons for their untimely separation, he sinks deeper into his past. He engages the services of the young, nubile Hye-In (Han Ha-you) to play the part of his long-lost love. Things take a worrying turn when Ji-soo begins to suspect that all is not well with her husband and marriage.
It may sound like a nervy premise ripe with tense possibilities, but the truth of the matter is that Role Play fairly plods along.yeol takes an oddly long time to set up the tangled web of relationships at the heart of his movie, even though they don`t boast much in the way of depth or nuance. Some complexity and layers would be nice, but the characters in the film – and their counterparts in Jung-how`s novel and imagination – are flat and lifeless. Ji-soo is defined almost solely by her bitter, choking jealousy and paranoia; Jung-ho by his own obsession with his past. Hye-in sparks to life on a couple of occasions, but it really isn`t evident at all why she finds herself drawn to the troubled Jung-ho.
Of course, Role Play is the kind of thriller that rests firmly on the twist in its tale. In theory, once all the cards are on the table, the complicated love/lust triangle in the film should take on a new light. Unfortunately, the revelation is unlikely to elicit more than a faintly frustrated indifference in viewers, especially since it actually cheapens some of the darker and more horrifying moments in the film. With the characters in both movie and novel failing to really strike a chord with audiences, it`s hard to imagine anyone caring enough to puzzle out just what that crucial difference between fiction and reality really means for our writerly protagonist.
Basically: A tale undone before its twist even arrives (and no, the twist doesn`t help matters either).
Rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars
Shawne Wang