It's a War Between the Sexes in "Two Can Play That Game"

All is fair in the game of love, or at least that is the premise behind Screen Gems’ “Two Can Play That Game.” The film focuses on Shante (Vivica A. Fox), a woman so adapted to navigating the waters of romance that her three best friends (played my Mo’nique, Wendy Raquel Robinson and Tamala Jones) almost use her as a love Bible. For not only is Shante gorgeous and successful, but she also appears to have the perfect man treating her like the Queen she is while these three women are stuck with losers.

What Shante’s friends don’t know though is that looks can be deceiving. After catching her man (Morris Chestnut) at a nearby pub rather than at work where he said he would be, Shante decides its time to put into effect the ten day plan—basically, treat your man like you have better options and see if he comes crawling back. As viewers go through Shante’s ten days, we witness not only the games that women can play (and have perfected) when it comes to relationships, but also the games men can play in retaliation.

While “Two Can Play That Game” is supposed to be driven by the actresses in the film—especially its star Vivica A. Fox—the real scene-stealers in the film come from the male actors. Viewers will find Morris Chestnut completely believable as the boyfriend who’s sick of playing games, while Anthony Anderson (“Big Momma’s House,” “Me, Myself and Irene”) is hilarious as his ‘playa’ best friend. Unfortunately, the two aren’t in the film nearly as much as they should be, leaving majority of the movie to Fox and her cast of squealing co-stars—all of which grow irritating ten minutes into the film. Luckily for viewers though, Fox flies solo during most of the film, and as the plot begins to thicken, Fox really begins to shine.

In addition to the casting being only semi-good, the other element of “Two Can Play That Game” that sticks into viewers’ minds is how one-sided the story is. While this was intentional-- after all, “Two Can Play That Game” is one of the few films out there today that uses first-person narration—the fact that the film was written and directed by a guy will cause some women to take offense to the observations he made. After all, not every woman toys with a man to the extremes that Shante and her friends do, yet the film acts like all women follow the ten-day plan. Even though Shante learns her lesson by the end of the film, “Two Can Play That Game” still stereotypes females and therefore may turn away the exact demographics the film is trying to attract.

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