The Game
Summary
Nicholas Van Orton (Michael Douglas) has quite a dull life. Although he is a very wealthy investment banker he lives alone in a giant house and has no social life to speak of. On his 48th birthday his brother Conrad (Sean Penn) surprises him by giving him a strange present - an appointment with Consumer Recreation Services (CRS). Conrad does not explain anything about the company or what they actually provide, just to call and use the appointment. "It will change your life" Conrad explains. After some thought Nicholas agrees. He spends an entire day at CRS filling out questionnaires and getting vague responses from a CRS employee (James Rebhorn) to his specific questions about the company and its services. All he is told is that the company provides a game that differs per client. Nicholas does not know what his game entails or when exactly it begins. A previous CRS client explains to Nicholas "The Game provides what is lacking in your life". Nicholas' Game begins. A message and a strange key are left in a creepy clown puppet in his driveway. It is a sign of strange events to come, including a night with a mysterious woman Christine (Deborah Kara Unger) that consists of a fake ambulance rescue, a seemingly broken elevator (that his mysterious key fixes), and fleeing arrest from police and police dogs. Was the woman part of the game, or was it a chance meeting? Events soon take a turn for the worst. Nicholas is linked to a trashed hotel room (that his credit card paid for), that is littered with pornography and cocaine. Soon Nicholas finds possible evidence that CRS may be running a scam to steal money from clients at any cost. It seems murder, bribery and blackmail are also part of CRS' business practices. Running for his life, Nicholas must try to end the game. Or is it all part of the game?
Commentary This is a somewhat familiar formula. Bad stuff happens to our hero, and just when it cannot get any worse, it does. At one point the Michael Douglas character is drugged and wakes up in Mexico with no money, no passport and no food. Ouch. The first movie that came to my mind with this formula was "Pacific Heights", where Michael Keaton, playing the tenant from hell, played landlords Matthew Modine and Melanie Griffith like a violin until hope was (almost) lost. This is a better movie than "Pacific Heights", which bordered on absurd. Some parts of "The Game" was a little far fetched of course (would firing blanks shatter glass?), but because the performances were well done (especially Unger as the mystery woman), I overlooked it. The story kept me interested, including a nice link between Nicholas and his dad who (told in flashback) committed suicide when he was 48, and the strained relationship between Nicholas and his ex-wife, and Nicholas and his brother. The best part of the movie is the depiction of the strange company, CRS. Its employees are friendly, yet vague and misleading, leaving a reason for distrust. There are also some funny moments involving some fake company names that are obviously a part of CRS. I couldn't help but grin when Nicholas jumps into a cab only to see the same exact CRS letters staring him in the face, or when he is chased by the cable company van, conveniently called "Cable Repair Service". This is a good thriller. I cared for the hero and hoped he survived unscathed. I hoped the hero and the mystery woman would further their relationship. Do they? I'll let you find out for yourself.
The Game *** (out of five)
Directed by David Fincher Nicholas Van Orton................Michael Douglas Conrad Van Orton..................Sean Penn Christine.........................Deborah Kara Unger Jim Feingold......................James Rebhorn Elizabeth.........................Anna Katerina
Written by Randy Turgeon. February 4, 1998
Visit my movie reviews web site! I just got started! www.xtdl.com/~canran
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews