REINDEER GAMES (Dimension) Starring: Ben Affleck, Gary Sinise, Charlize Theron, Clarence Williams III, Danny Trejo, Donal Logue, James Frain, Dennis Farina. Screenplay: Ehren Kruger. Producers: Marty Katz, Bob Weinstein and Chris Moore. Director: John Frankenheimer. MPAA Rating: R (profanity, violence, nudity, sexual situations) Running Time: 105 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
I did not out-guess the first released film from an Ehren Kruger script, ARLINGTON ROAD. Nor did I out-guess the second released film from an Ehren Kruger script, SCREAM 3. Kruger has shown himself to be particularly fascinated with labyrinthine plot developments, the kind of stuff that's supposed to leave an audience thinking, "Ooooooh, I didn't see that coming." In ARLINGTON ROAD, however, you _could_ have seen it coming. The twist _was_ the story, brilliantly re-casting the entire film as a retrospective experience. SCREAM 3 twisted because it had to, and you got the sense that any one of a dozen possible endings would have seemed just as plausible. REINDEER GAMES would be round three, perhaps proving which of Kruger's first two scripts was the exception, and which was the rule.
Once again, I did not out-guess Kruger. And, as with SCREAM 3, it didn't really matter. REINDEER GAMES stars Ben Affleck as Rudy Duncan, a convicted car thief nearing the end of his sentence in a Michigan prison. When his cellmate Nick (James Frain) is stabbed during a riot the day before their scheduled release, Rudy sees an opportunity to hook up with the gorgeous pen pal named Ashley (Charlize Theron) with whom Nick has been corresponding. Posing as the pen pal Ashley has never seen, Rudy gets a wild night with Ashley. Then things get much wilder when Ashley's psychotic brother Gabriel (Gary Sinise) shows up. He believes "Nick" has insider information about a reservation casino where he used to work, and which Gabriel and his colleagues plan to hold up. A reluctant Rudy therefore finds himself forced to mastermind a heist in a place he has never been.
Admittedly, it's sort of a nifty premise. The road to much cinematic garbage has also been littered with nifty premises. REINDEER GAMES may not be garbage, but there's also nothing that builds a sense of identification with the film's ostensible hero. Affleck is a pleasant enough performer, and he's certainly built like an action star, but there's something he lacks as a screen actor. Despite the fact that most of his roles to date have required him to lose his temper, there never seems to be an edge to Affleck's performances. There's nothing behind his words; when he yells, he's yelling lines of dialogue. Any attempts the film makes to dig into who Rudy is, or why he does what he does, feel pointless. As the film's central character, Affleck is just occupying space.
Of course, genre films like REINDEER GAMES often don't ask more of its characters. This one hits a few high notes along the way when Kruger just decides to tell an action-filled story. He's got a great director for that kind of work in John Frankenheimer, who knows how to make the most of dialogue-free mayhem. He's got a top-notch villain in Gary Sinise (though you could argue that his characterization doesn't make much sense once all the pieces of the plot fall into place). And he's got Charlize Theron, who's as easy on the eyes as anyone working in film (and, if I'm any judge, destined to be considered like Michelle Pfeiffer as an extremely talented actress once people can get past how breathtakingly gorgeous she is). The casino heist itself is appropriately frantic, and plenty of Kruger's small script moments along the way are slick enough to keep a viewer interested.
Then come the double-crosses, triple-crosses and quadruple-crosses so fast and so frequent that another one is upon you before you can remember the prefix for the next "-uple" you're up to. There's no question that the events in the final half-hour of REINDEER GAMES prove surprising, in the sense that the average viewer probably won't expect them. It's also true that they don't matter in the slightest except as a sort of false cleverness. Not only are they arbitrary -- I dare anyone to watch the film a second time and spot a single clue that points in the right direction -- but they're insulting in a film that then goes on to make the denouement an act of supreme stupidity (hint: try not to leave a trail to your whereabouts if you're leaving the scene of a crime). For a simple genre story, REINDEER GAMES ties itself up in far too many unnecessary knots. Kruger has shown himself to be smarter than your average screenwriter. He has also shown that he can be too interested in proving it.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 red-herring reindeers: 4.
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