[In a fancy restaurant]
Conrad: I've been here before.
Nicholas: I took you here for your birthday.
Conrad: No, I used to buy crystal meth from the Maitre D.
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.
By : Scott Renshaw
Source: rec.art.movies.reviews newsgroup
Rating: 4
Nicholas Van Orton is an investment banker who is on a psychological treadmill thanks to a birthday gift from his brother Conrad. As his answer to what to give to the superrich, Conrad gives Nickolas a game for his birthday, and what a game!
Imaginative director David Fincher, who created last year's crime and terror masterpiece, SEVEN, takes a completely different approach with THE GAME. Whereas SEVEN was non-stop, in-your-face action and gore, THE GAME is meticulously drawn with a pacing that is more subdued that one expects in a thriller. The carefully written script by John D. Brancato, Michael Ferris, and Andrew Kevin Walker uses the entire first hour to completely setup the plot. Most thrillers would have gotten down to business and had the audience on the edge of their seats in the first fifteen minutes. Although mainly a deficiency, this slow opening technique does heighten the film's psychological warfare with Nicholas and by extension, the audience. THE GAME is not a particularly violent film, but one that plays tricks with the mind.
As the story starts, we meet hardened and cynical businessman Nicholas in a typical day at the office. Michael Douglas, in one of his better performances, plays Nicholas as a man who starts off sure and complacent but becomes adrift and highly agitated.
Today is Nicholas's birthday, but, not caring about any human being including himself, he finds the anniversary of his birth a distraction. When one of his minions wishes him "Happy Birthday," he remarks that he never liked her. At home in his mansion, his routine consists of listening to the CNN Financial News network while enjoying simple sandwiches served on elaborate dishes. At work, he negotiates big deals with a cutthroat attitude. Miss your numbers by a few pennies, and you're on the street.
Nicholas's brother, played by Sean Penn in almost a cameo role, surprises him at lunch with the gift of a game from Consumer Recreation Services. (As an in-joke, the movie has CRS used as the initials for a variety of clandestine businesses associated with the company.) All Nicholas has to do is call CRS's phone number. After he calls, he ends up taking an all-day battery of tests ranging from questionnaires about his treatment of small animals to an exhausting physical to test his stamina.
Nicholas, a control freak extraordinaire, detests the unknown so he has questions for CRS's management. CRS Vice President Jim Feingold (James Rebhorn) answers Nicholas's queries about the game. "The game is tailored specifically to each participant," he explains obtusely. "Think of it as a great vacation, except you don't go to it, it comes to you." He even goes on to claim that, "We've never had an unsatisfied customer." When Nicholas still remains baffled about exactly what the game is, the VP tells him, "We're like an experiential Book-of-the-Month Club."
At this point the normally smug and confident Nicholas can only guess what will happen. With the arrival of a clown mannequin bearing a key and a CNN/FN television announcer who stops talking about stocks and begins to address Nicholas directly, the game is afoot. Nicholas, who in the past ignored everyone, begins to look carefully at each person with the suspicion that they are part of the game. The best part of the story is that the audience also doesn't know either who is a CRS employee and who isn't.
The show takes one tricky turn after another. Just when you're sure you've got it figured out, you don't. The multi-part ending is easily the film's best part. Although it is easy to convince oneself after the fact that you guessed it all along, the reality is that few people will be able guess half of the twists and turns in advance.
Along the way, Nicholas hooks up with a sometime sidekick named Christine. Deborah Unger, last seen as the bored wife in CRASH, David Cronenberg's ode last year to sex and car accidents, plays Christine as a lovely enigma. Although this is Michael Douglas's show, her more limited screen time is suitably confusing and intriguing.
As Nicholas descends into his hellish labyrinth, he begins to lose his rock solid grip on his destiny and starts to reexamine all of his assumptions about life. "I don't care about the money," he declares, ready to risk it all. "I'm pulling back the curtain. I want to meet the wizard." The engrossed audience feels the same way. We've got to know what in the world is going on.
Fincher ratchets up the tension in the last hour and redeems the picture's all too slow beginning. With Harris Savides's dark and brooding cinematography even the slow parts are never boring. After watching THE GAME, we at least know the downside of making too much money -- it can be downright dangerous.
THE GAME runs 2:08. It is rated R for profanity and psychological terror. The film would be fine for teenagers. I recommend the picture to you and give it ***.
