‘Fair Play’s’ Period Sex Scene Is A Brilliant Way to Trick Audiences Into Loving Alden Ehrenreich

Alden Ehrenreich spends approximately 90 minutes of Fair Play being the absolute worst. Yet in order for the premise of filmmaker Chloe Domont’s drama—which began streaming on Netflix today—to work, audiences need to at least kinda, sorta like Ehrenreich’s character for the first ten minutes of the film. Or, at the very least, we need to understand why Phoebe Dynevor would agree to marry him. For this, Domont devises an inspired solution: Period sex.

The movie, which was written and directed by Domont in her directorial debut, opens with Emily (Dynevor) attending a wedding with her boyfriend, Luke (Ehrenreich). The couple gives every appearance of being young, hot, and passionately in love—so much so that they slip off to have sex in the wedding venue bathroom. Luke goes down on Emily, then comes back up, trailing kisses over her body… with his mouth covered in blood. Yes, Emily is unexpectedly on her period. Yes, Luke now has uterine lining smeared all over his face. And no, he does not recoil in disgust and immediately douse himself in mouthwash. Instead, he takes it like an absolute champ.

It’s a simple but brilliant way to trick the audience into (temporarily) rooting for Luke. What could be more of a green flag for a man than a casual, blasé attitude about period blood? Luke doesn’t gag or dry heave when he realizes what’s happened. He simply laughs at the absurdity of the situation. He jokes that Emily, whose dress is now also covered in blood, looks like she’s “slaughtered a chicken.”

“We have to take the photos, still,” he says, grinning a blood-tinged smile. “Do you think this is a problem?”

Maybe the bar is too low, but at this moment, Luke instantly becomes likable, charming, and hot. What could be more attractive than a man who eschews the societal norm of menstruation shame? Time and time again, women have been told periods are disgusting bodily functions; an immediate turn-off. But Luke doesn’t act like Emily’s any less sexy to him at this moment. You understand why, in the next moment, Emily says yes to Luke’s accidental marriage proposal. It’s sweet. It’s messy. It’s gross. And it’s terribly romantic.

Of course, then Emily gets a promotion at work that Luke thought was coming to him, and everything goes to shit. You’ll never think kindly of this man again. By the end of the film, you’ll think he’s downright monstrous. But for one scene, he was the perfect boyfriend. Forget “saving the cat.” Being chill about period blood is my new favorite way to get me to root for a character.