THE GAME (Polygram) Starring: Michael Douglas, Deborah Kara Unger, Sean Penn, James Rebhorn. Screenplay: John Brancato and Michael Ferris. Producers: Steve Golin and Cean Chaffin. Director: David Fincher. MPAA Rating: R (profanity, adult themes, intense situations) Running Time: 123 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
There are bound to be fans of SEVEN who will view director David Fincher's follow-up project, THE GAME, as a sell-out...but then again, where was there to go from SEVEN? Fincher's 1995 thriller may have been the decade's most baffling blockbuster -- a horrifying, unnerving, bleak vision of millennial dread which was everything a Hollywood success wasn't supposed to be, yet still somehow made $100 million. It left viewers shaken and emotionally drained like nothing in recent memory. If Fincher had decided to remake THE EXORCIST for his next project, someone would have accused him of going soft.
The wonderfully surprising thing about THE GAME is that it may be the best choice Fincher could have made. Free from the ridiculous expectations of ALIEN3 and the off-putting subject matter of SEVEN, Fincher might finally be recognized as the most gifted director of suspense films working today. THE GAME is a gripping, dizzying and thoroughly entertaining thriller which bears no resemblance whatsoever to SEVEN, except in the obvious talent of the director.
Michael Douglas stars as Nicholas Van Orton, a millionaire San Francisco investment banker with a big empty house to match his big empty life. Enter Nick's black sheep brother Conrad (Sean Penn), with a special 48th birthday present for the man who has everything: a gift certificate to a mysterious enterprise called Consumer Recreation Services. Once signed up, Nick learns that he will be participating in a specially-designed game with unknown rules and an unknown object. He's not even sure when -- or if -- it will begin.
And for the audience, that's half the fun. Fincher wrings an unbelievable amount of tension out of the likelihood that something will happen, even though nothing is actually happening. As Nick strides through an airport shortly after receiving his first clue in the game, the confident businessman slowly begins to see every person as a potential participant, every mundane action or object as potentially loaded with significance. The mere idea of loss of control drives Nick nuts; the game is playing him even before it begins.
Then the game does begin, and Fincher tightens the screws psychologically as well as viscerally. As tautly as he can fashion a chase or an action sequence, he's even better at creating a pervasive atmosphere of impending doom, or the unsettling possibility that literally anything could happen next. If action/suspense films, according to the popular metaphor, are roller-coasters, Fincher's ride is a suspended roller-coaster: not only are you moving at breakneck speed, you can't even see the track to anticipate which way you're going to turn. That's saying quite a lot because, if you think about it carefully, you'll realize there's really only one way the film can pay off. Even though you may know where THE GAME ultimately will end up, Fincher makes sure you don't know how you're going to get there.
THE GAME's somewhat predictable script comes from the team of John Brancato and Michael Ferris, who sent Sandra Bullock through similar Everyperson-in-peril paces in THE NET. Don't let that keep you away. Michael Douglas' characteristic intensity and determination give THE GAME an edge Bullock couldn't muster, while Fincher sets up even simple shots with a shudder-inducing elegance (I'm not sure I've seen an elevator door open with more menace than it does in THE GAME, and that includes THE SHINING). This time, however, it's possible to enjoy Fincher's shudders with a smile. THE GAME may not be as profound an experience as SEVEN, but it's a more satisfying one. If this is David Fincher's idea of selling out, I hope folks are buying. We may be looking at the emergence of this generation's Hitchcock.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 game set matches: 9.
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