I first noticed this on Disney+, but then have seen it listed on just about every streaming service we use.

In this delightful romantic comedy, Ryan Reynolds plays the title character, Guy. Guy doesn't know it, but we very quickly find out (and it's in the trailer) that he's a non-player character (NPC) in a free-world video game. He immediately dialogues about the spectacular life the "sunglasses people" get to lead, compared with the happy but repetitive lives he and his friends and peers lead. The "sunglasses people" are the real world players, of course, but we don't get to know that really just yet, although it's clear, again from the trailer.

Just as we hear about some of the aspirations Guy has, he walks by the girl of his dream. Of course, she's one of the "sunglasses people," but he's undeterred and attempts to reach out to her by acquiring some sunglasses from another player. He accidentally kills this player, bringing him to the attention of the real world administrators of the game. While they work out what to do, Guy starts to figure out that the world he's in isn't all it seems, and the adventure begins.

The movie goes pretty much how you might expect it.

There's a nice overlapping set of discoveries for the characters, and some intertwined reasons to keep the interactions going. The unrequited love story builds, while the underlying subterfuge and industrial espionage (for good reason) continues.

It's an interesting take on how a game character might see their world. The use of sunglasses is a clever way to show the separate perspectives from the unknowing NPCs and the all-knowing players. There are a few small technological things that drew out a little long, like how the admins couldn't almost immediately identify Guy as an NPC instead of a hacker, given how well they could interact with others in the game, and descend on Guy at will when they needed to find him in the game. And some of the sneaking around looking for original code should have been much easier for the creator of said code to find. Not suspending that disbelief would have made for a pretty short story, though. Plus it's about the characters, not the technology.

There were lots of chuckles in the movie, too. A lot of clever play by Reynolds as an innocent and naive NPC, and then a lot of development as his self-awareness changes as he starts dominating in the game. Overlap this with the insignificance most of the players attribute to the NPCs, and all manner of misunderstanding ensue. It was nice to see Guy commitment to being a good guy the whole time, too, while never losing sight of his innocent mission of being able to talk to the girl of his dreams.

It's a fun little watch, nothing really to spoil as you talk about it, or worry about when recommending it. There's the smallest hint of language, but no overt swearing, and some suggestions of adult situations, but just a little kissing, with some appropriately cartoonish video-game style violence, including a few fisticuffs and gunshots. The kids liked it, too, laughing and even getting into the subterfuge story.