Two Can Play That Game
Two Can Play That Game is a 2001 American romantic comedy written and directed by Mark Brown, starring Vivica A. Fox as a Los Angeles advertising executive who launches a ten-day campaign of manipulation to discipline her straying boyfriend, played by Morris Chestnut.1 It was released wide on September 7, 2001 by Screen Gems, the distribution arm of Sony Pictures, and earned about $22.2 million domestically on a $13 million production budget.2
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | Wide theatrical release September 7, 2001; distributed by Screen Gems (Sony Pictures Releasing)2 • 1 |
| Director and writer | Mark Brown, in his directorial debut; he also wrote How to Be a Player (1997)1 • 3 |
| Lead cast | Vivica A. Fox (Shanté Smith), Morris Chestnut (Keith Fenton), Anthony Anderson (Tony), Gabrielle Union (Conny Spalding)1 • 4 |
| Box office | $22,235,901 domestic, $155,549 international, $22,391,450 worldwide; opening weekend $7,720,942; budget $13,000,0002 |
| Runtime and rating | 90 minutes (91 minutes per AFI); MPAA rating R for language including sexual dialogue2 • 1 |
| Critical reception | 40% Tomatometer from 63 reviews; 83% Popcornmeter from more than 25,000 audience ratings on Rotten Tomatoes5 |
| Music | Score by Marcus Miller; the opening features Carl Carlton's 1982 song "She's a Bad Mama Jama"1 • 6 |
Spoilers
Plot
Shanté Smith (Vivica A. Fox) is a confident advertising executive whose relationship with the lawyer Keith Fenton (Morris Chestnut) is the envy of her friends, who rely on her for romantic advice. When Shanté and her friends catch Keith at a nightclub with another woman, her archrival Conny (Gabrielle Union), Shanté institutes her "Ten-Day Plan," a sequence of mind games and punishments she narrates directly to the camera, intended to get her man back in line, save face with her friends, and restore her control over the relationship.5 • 7 Keith, meanwhile, receives coaching from his golfing buddy Tony (Anthony Anderson), and the plan eventually meets resistance from tricks of Keith's own.2 • 8
The supporting cast includes Wendy Raquel Robinson as Karen, Tamala Jones as Tracye, Mo'Nique as Diedre, Bobby Brown as Michael, Ray Wise as Bill Parker, and Dondre Whitfield as Dwain.4
Production
Mark Brown, who had written the 1997 comedy How to Be a Player, made his directorial debut with this film and also produced it with Doug McHenry (credited as Doug Henry in the AFI Catalog) and Paddy Cullen.3 • 1 The production company was KH2C Productions (listed by Rotten Tomatoes as RH2C Productions), with Alexander Gruszynski as cinematographer, Earl Watson as editor, Amy Ancona as production designer, and a score by jazz bassist and composer Marcus Miller.1 • 5 Fox said the frank way Shanté speaks with her close girlfriends drew on Sex and the City as a major influence.9
Reception
Critical response was largely negative. On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 40% Tomatometer from 63 reviews, against an 83% Popcornmeter score from more than 25,000 audience ratings.5 The site's critics consensus calls it "more mean-spirited than romantic" and notes that some critics found its attitudes misogynistic and its product placements blatant.5 Robert Koehler of Variety wrote that few recent movies had conceived their central female character more contemptuously, comparing Shanté to a devotee of the bestselling The Rules who is set up for a satiric fall.5 The Los Angeles Times review found the mind games harsh and self-indulgent but credited Fox's performance as the main reason to welcome the film.8 The Time Out review was more favorable, praising Fox's "self-possessed" central performance and the film's robustly rude dialogue.10
Box office. The film opened at number 2 with $7,720,942 from 1,297 theaters and finished with $22,235,901 domestically and $22,391,450 worldwide, about 1.7 times its $13 million production budget.2 • 4
Context in Black romantic comedy
The film belongs to a cluster of romantic comedies about affluent African-American professionals made between the early 1990s and early 2000s, alongside The Brothers, The Best Man, The Wood, and Brown Sugar.11 The British Film Institute has described 1992 to 2002 as a golden age of the Black romantic comedy, and highlights the film's introduction of Morris Chestnut, panning onto him while Missy Elliott and Da Brat's "Sock It 2 Me" plays, as a moment worthy of comparison with soundtrack-based introductions by Martin Scorsese or Paul Thomas Anderson.12 Scholars have read it as a battle-of-the-sexes comedy reminiscent of 1930s and 1940s screwball, and as a woman's take on The Taming of the Shrew.13 • 9
The film's afterlife includes a stage adaptation: in 2017, stage producer and playwright Je'Caryous Johnson adapted it for the stage.14
References
- Two Can Play that Game (2001), AFI Catalog of Feature Films
- Two Can Play That Game (2001), Box Office Mojo
- Vivica A. Fox Is Playing the 'Game', Los Angeles Times (September 3, 2001)
- Two Can Play That Game (2001), The Numbers
- Two Can Play That Game, Rotten Tomatoes
- Postmillennial romantic comedies: song conventions (Ohio State University dissertation)
- TWO CAN PLAY THAT GAME, Sony Pictures Entertainment
- No Relief for the Tedium of Tired 'Play That Game', Los Angeles Times (September 7, 2001)
- Look who's boss, Metro Times (September 12, 2001)
- Two Can Play That Game review, Time Out
- "Two Can Play That Game", Salon.com (September 7, 2001)
- Why 1992 to 2002 was the golden age of the black romantic comedy, BFI
- Nikolenko, A. G., Semantics of the Raced Body in Romantic Comedies
- Two Can Play That Game (2001), NetflixMovies.com
Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of 2000 to 2002 › Comedies of 2001
Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026
Your notes
© 2026 Biostate AI. Free to use with credit under the Edgepedia Community License. Developers: read Edgepedia by API or MCP. Embed a reference card.