The reviews you might have read about this film all spotted it, and they're right. Despite it being set today, with current tech mobile phones and computers, it's a perfectly pitched throwback to a movement of thrillers we got in the 90s that were aimed at adults – sexy, dangerous and set in the world of big business.

But the moral of the story refers to a phenomenon that's much older – about how even today when you'd think gender equality is a given, some men are too insecure and immature to cope when a woman advances in the world before them, particularly if he's in love with her.

We meet Emily (Phoebe Dynevor) and Luke (Alden Ehrenreich) at Luke's brother's wedding, deeply in love, sneaking off to the bathroom to have sex and with Luke asking Emily to likewise marry him. The couple are as blissful as they are cute.

Gradually we learn more about their lives. They both work for the same high powered Wall Street stockbroking/hedge fund firm where relationships between colleagues are frowned on, leaving for work in the small hours, travelling there separately on Ubers and the subway and pretending to barely acknowledge each other while they're there.

But both are hoping for their big break and when a portfolio manager is fired Emily overhears that Luke's being considered to take over, and the pair are beyond excited. But the firm's intimidating and no-nonsense boss, Campbell (Eddie Marsan, whose dodgy American accent represents the movie's sole down note) invites Emily for drinks late one night and actually offers her the job instead.

Luke is supportive but shocked, and soon the cracks starts to show in their relationship because of his jealousy. It starts tiny (as things between lovers do), but soon he's criticising the way she dresses, spending money on a snake oil salesman self help guru's book series, and refusing the touch her.

It's made even worse as Emily – in her newly privileged position – starts to understand that the company is actually so unimpressed with Luke performance he's unlikely to ever advance.

When she takes his advice on a trade and loses the company a fortune, she realises what a liability he's becoming. In short order it will result in him humiliating himself in front of their boss (and everyone), showing up to work drunk out of his mind and worse, with Emily increasingly desperate to control the unravelling threads of her life, all ending on a shockingly effective note that has a gratifyingly female-friendly outcome.

The naturalistic performances and script go a long way to selling the story and drawing you in, and the excellent design and staging of the life of a modern young couple in not just the big city but the aesthetic and lifeblood of the New York finance industry complete the illusion.

It has something to say about gender dynamics in relationships without shouting a message from the rooftops, and it's a rollickingly good thriller in the bargain.