The Game

Starring Michael Douglas and Sean Penn

Close your eyes for a brief moment and reflect upon your childhood. Do you remember finding yourself the victim of a cruel game orchestrated by one of your best friends? I’m sure you have. In retrospect, an occurrence like that would be meaningless; like a drop in a bucket. Now stop in your tracks. Catapult this situation to the nth degree. You’re now talking to your friend in present day 1997 when suddenly, he pulls a gun on you. You notice it’s really loaded. You then wonder: is this some sick joke?

This is the premise of David Fincher’s slickly executed thriller, The Game. Fincher successfully convinces his audience that even a sliver of suspicion is a sign of trouble. The less-convoluted version of the plot is as follows: Nicholas Van Orton (played chillingly well by Michael Douglas) is a billionaire without a soul. As a birthday present, his estranged younger brother Conrad (played by Sean Penn) decides to offer him what he calls “a profound life experience”, which, by his standards, translates into a gift certificate for a “service” offered by the vaguely named company, Consumer Recreation Services (CRS). After a bit of hesitation, Douglas, infatuated by curiosity, accepts the challenge and redeems his certificate, still unaware of the implications. As he continues his daily routine, Douglas has unknowingly made the first move in what could only be considered “the Twilight Zone of games.” Little accidents start to befall Douglas, and puzzling as they may be, he dismisses them because what else could they be, but “little accidents?” Soon little accidents become bigger accidents and the game seems more than a string of coincidence.

Though initially maintaining a rather flat trajectory as “game pieces” spring to confront him, the challenges that Douglas needs to overcome begin to contain a higher amount of dramatic significance. Gone are the silly annoyances of day to day work, and thus arrive more life-threatening situations and issues that provoke retrospection. As the situations become more and more extreme, Douglas’ level of tolerance is put to the test. Being that CRS has a complete file on him, no stone from Douglas’ life is left unturned. Every object or person with whom Douglas has been in contact with is part of this game, and therein lies the problem. Douglas is compelled to second-guess every uncertainty that occurs during the day. This is a pleasure for any viewer who wants to keep guessing at what comes next, because it’s impossible. There is no end to the open amount of possible “game targets” that could be used; it is the largest possible canvas for a storyboard: someone’s life. It generates excitement within the audience, as every camera movement or close-up may appear intentional, and this is exactly what keeps the film riveting: audience involvement.

The film makes an effort to show how it’s possible to yank the soul out of someone’s life. The screenplay does it piece by piece. First, it starts with simple contraptions not working, continues with sensitive pushes of privacy invasion, rejection, loss and other feelings that can potentially hurt. It’s largest blows come with financial insecurity, loneliness, and, ultimately, full-blown depression. The total loss of a sense of security is one that can drive anyone to undertake extreme measures. This is exactly what fuels Douglas’ breakdown.

The acting potential is maximized by the stars of the film. Michael Douglas returns to familiar territory as he plays a rich investment banker with the same cruel elegance that he had in his Oscar-winning role in Wall Street. As Douglas’ rage and patience hit their boiling points, he relies upon the experience he got from his role in Falling Down, where he portrays an average Joe that suddenly cracks. Sean Penn also revists the past as he plays a reckless youth dealing with the results of bad choices, a role he played once too often in such films as Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Racing With The Moon. The production design, score, costumes and editing are all of average quality, as there was nothing special that this film needed.

As far as direction goes, it seems that David Fincher will soon be able to pronounce himself as the new king of cinematic suspense. Though only having three films to his name, he has managed to touch on different aspects of the nature of suspense. Alien 3, though suffering from a lack of amiable characters, gave Fincher a conduit to express the nature of fear. By using the audience’s familiarity with the alien and through a creative use of camera angles, Fincher was able to force a long-hidden fear of the unknown to come to light and add a sense of claustrophobia to boot. Seven offered Fincher the chance to portray suspense through an avenue of moral decay and gruesome shocks. The Game offers Fincher an opportunity to do this from a classier angle by throwing real life-crushing blows to an already broken man. There are no monsters or serial killers that are used as tools to convey this message, only a feeling of insecurity. The audience is instead offered a very realistically controlled (compared to his other films), Hitchcockian take of a suspense story; a character study of a man in a situation gone wrong, and all that’s needed to heighten the suspense are a cup of soda and your complete attention.

1/2