Sometimes, predictability can be a good thing. It is handy in the financial world, for example, when you can have an idea of what a market will do in order to invest accordingly. Indeed, it is a blessing when you can have some foreknowledge of almost anything. As the old cliché goes, knowledge is power. Alternatively, Catholicism falls on both sides of the predictability divide. People criticize it for a perceived centuries-long sameness. On the other hand, as inheritors and defenders of the Christian Faith, we can trust in God’s promises, knowing that salvation is His gift of grace, to which we are called to respond through faith, worship, and a life lived according to His will. None of this is all that applicable to today’s film, Players (2024), outside of the fact that it is evident what is going to happen in the end from the first few minutes after the opening credits. However, it is my sworn duty to tell you about movies, so here we go.

With its opening introduction to a group of romantic players who think they can predict and manipulate attraction, Players (2024) wastes little time suggesting that one of them may be overlooking the person best suited to her. Mackenzie “Mack” Cannon (Gina Rodriguez) is a thirty-three-year-old sportswriter at a New York City newspaper who treats casual dating like a competitive sport. Alongside her closest friend and colleague Adam (Damon Wayans Jr.), obituary writer Sam Brannagan (Augustus Prew), and Sam’s younger brother Ryan, known as Little (Joel Courtney), she devises elaborate “plays” to engineer one-night stands. The group prides itself on knowing how to create seemingly spontaneous meetings, although its cardinal rule is that a hookup arranged through a play should never become a serious relationship. Mack’s confidence falters when she meets Nick Russell (Tom Ellis), an accomplished war correspondent and author with a sophisticated apartment and impressive professional reputation. After spending the night with him, she discovers that he considers their encounter a one-time affair. For once, Mack wants something more lasting, so she enlists Adam and the others to help her turn Nick into a boyfriend. They research his interests and schedule and develop a complicated strategy called “the Flurry,” beginning with a chance encounter in which Mack deliberately acts uninterested. When Nick arranges a date with another woman, the group recruits the newspaper’s secretary, Ashley (Liza Koshy), to help engineer an interruption, allowing Mack to take the other woman’s place. The scheme works, and Mack and Nick begin dating. Meanwhile, Little and Ashley develop an attraction of their own, while Adam surprises his friends by starting a relationship with Claire (Ego Nwodim), a dental hygienist he met without using any elaborate play. Mack is unsettled that Adam has pursued someone without telling her and is increasingly anxious that Nick might lose interest. She persuades Adam to participate in another maneuver during a double-date brunch with Nick and Claire. Rather than making Nick jealous or more attentive, the outing exposes how naturally Mack and Adam understand each other. Their familiar jokes and shared history leave Claire uncomfortable, and Adam begins questioning whether Mack actually likes Nick or simply enjoys the challenge of winning him. The romantic confusion unfolds against professional uncertainty at the newspaper. Mack’s editor, Karen Kirk (Marin Hinkle), has assigned her a feature on New Yorkers’ most memorable sporting moments, and rumors of impending layoffs make the opportunity especially important. Mack struggles to find the right approach before drawing on her own emotional connection to sports, particularly memories involving her parents. Adam reads her draft immediately and encourages her to submit it, recognizing the personal voice that makes the piece effective. Nick, occupied with his book, delays reading it. At a formal gala where Nick receives a humanitarian award, Mack feels increasingly out of place among his distinguished acquaintances. She finally learns that Nick has not merely offered suggestions on her article but rewritten it, removing the memories and personality that made it hers. Adam is furious on her behalf and confronts Mack about how much of herself she has been willing to change to keep Nick. Their disagreement drives Adam away. When Mack challenges Nick afterward, he dismisses her writing as sentimental and reveals that he has known about the newspaper’s possible layoffs without telling her. She realizes that he neither respects her work nor truly understands her, and their relationship ends. Instead of accepting Nick’s version of her article, Mack submits her original piece to Karen, who loves it and rewards her with the chance to cover a New York Yankees game. The professional success gives Mack something genuine to celebrate, although her estrangement from Adam remains painful. During an outing with their friends, Mack spots Claire with another man and angrily confronts her, assuming she is cheating on Adam. Claire explains that she and Adam broke up shortly after the uncomfortable brunch because she recognized that Adam was in love with Mack. The others confirm that his feelings have been obvious for years, even if Mack has refused to see them. Mack initially protests, but she begins recognizing that Adam has consistently cared for her, believed in her abilities, and understood her better than Nick ever did. Having finally acknowledged her own feelings, she attempts to reach Adam, who has been avoiding her. Ashley, now dating Little, helps arrange one last play by pretending that she needs Adam’s assistance with a surprise involving Yankees–Red Sox tickets. The real target is Adam himself. The scheme brings him to a meaningful spot outside the stadium, where Mack admits that she loves him and that she has spent so much time chasing the wrong man that she failed to recognize what was in front of her. Adam returns her feelings, and the longtime friends kiss. Mack then heads inside to cover the game, having gained both a promising new chapter in her career and a relationship that, unlike her old plays, is grounded in genuine affection.

If you did not see the eventual coupling of Adam and Mack at the end of Players, then you have likely not seen a romantic comedy. By the way, get ready for this complaint to be repeated in a couple of weeks when we head into the Christmas season. If you think these films are predictable, then watch some holiday-appropriate films. As such, there is not a lot I can tell you from a Catholic perspective about today’s selection. A possibility would be the lack of genuineness on display in modern dating culture, but one does not have to be Christian to recognize this fact. Instead, we will have to approach this in a sideways fashion, which makes sense when you think about the material contained within the production. In one scene, Adam and Mack are talking about their relationships while having a picnic outside Yankee Stadium. In the background, there is a sign with a quote from Bull Durham (1988): “Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains.” For these two Players, that seems an apt description of their romantic encounters. There is some Catholic wisdom in that quote, too. What is being discussed is all of life’s eventualities, and we cannot predict all of them. When you come down to it, what Mack and company are doing with their “plays” is trying to control the outcomes. As it is sometimes put, you “use them and lose them,” which is actually safer than “catching feelings.” A real exchange between two people involves vulnerability, which can be scary. Many people avoid giving themselves to God because they think it is a one-way street with no clear answer. The truth is that we can encounter answers in Scripture, in prayer, and, yes, even in the love of a longtime friend whom we have long taken for granted. Such faithful friendship can offer a glimpse of God’s steadfast love, which endures through thick and thin.

Still, because Players is so predictable, it is thin on reasons for me to recommend it to you. Put differently, you have seen this movie before.