The Game
A David Fincher movie
With Michael Douglas, Sean Penn, Deborah Unger, Jim Feingold and others
We've all been there at some point: a brother's birthday approaches and you've no idea what to give him. They guy has got everything. Including more money than you have. So you buy a nice tie. Or you hand bro a gift certificate.
Conrad van Orton (Sean Penn) give his brother Nick (Michael Douglas) a certificate from Consumer Recreation Services. Nick is supposed to play a mysterious game. All he knows about it is that it will change his life.
And his life needs changing. Nick has money galore, but he's been divorced for a long time and instead of friends he has business partners whom he doesn't treat too well (WALL STREET revisited).
So Nick hands in his certificate. Suddenly he finds keys everywhere, his TV starts talking to him and a mysterious blonde enters his life, but not the kind that giggles and screams.
But there's more. He looses everything he owns, shoots his brother by mistake and like his father many years ago sees only one way out of his dilemma: suicide. He jumps off a roof - and lands on a giant air cushion in the middle of his birthday party. After all, it's just a game.
When his brother walks up to him with a big bloodstain on his breast and a big smile on his face Nick doesn't punch him but gives him a big hug, celebrates with his guests and even picks up the check. I found that much harder to believe than all the strange things that happened to Nick during the Game.
The movie is well made and features some superb acting especially by Deborah Unger and Michael Douglas, but the ending ruined it a bit for me. David Fincher cleverly made Nick van Orton a believable character without slowing down the pace of the movie. In the end I just expected more than a big grin plastered on Michael Douglas' face.
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