Ploy - Reception

Reception

The film premiered on May 21, 2007 during the Directors' Fortnight at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. Critical reaction was mixed. Russell Edwards, writing for the film industry trade publication Variety, was negative, criticizing the film for its "glacial pace" and saying it was "too flimsy and false to truly engage."

Lee Marshall, writing for another trade journal, Screen Daily, was positive, mentioning The Seven Year Itch and calling Ploy "a tasty slice of cinema, by turns oneiric, erotic, funny and emotionally perceptive."

"Ploy imposes its own unhurried rhythm but then rewards its viewers for their indulgence, and within the arthouse niche that it will inevitably inhabit this could turn out to be a strong seller," Marshall wrote.

In an interview at Cannes, Pen-Ek reacted to the Variety and Screen Daily reviews, saying, "One is so bad and one is so good. They're equally not true."

Todd Brown, writing from Cannes for the website Twitchfilm.net, said Ploy is a logical step in the director's evolution, continuing on themes that were explored in Last Life in the Universe and Invisible Waves. "Ploy is essentially a lucid dream, a film that takes place in that odd in-between state when you cannot be sure whether you are sleeping or awake and there are seemingly sure pointers that would have you believe both. It is a film about people dislocated and relationships formed while others are breaking down badly," Brown wrote. "Ploy is a beautiful, thoughtful, meditative film, one that requires more effort from its audience than does Last Life in the Universe but one that the patient will find no less rewarding."

Kong Rithdee, critic for the Bangkok Post, said "Ploy is a finely tuned, mature piece of filmmaking that discusses adult themes with honesty and amused attention to the tiny details that define the shifting phases of a marriage. Ploy takes us closer to the characters than the director did in his last two outings ... and despite its dreamy episodes of hot-breath lovemaking, the movie is anchored in the sense of social realities more than his non-fans might care to observe."