The Game (1997)

Directed by: David Fincher | 128 minutes | adventure, thriller | Actors: Michael Douglas, Sean Penn, Deborah Kara Unger, James Rebhorn, Peter Donat, Carroll Baker, Anna Katarina, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Charles Martinet, Scott Hunter McGuire, Florentine Mocanu, Elizabeth Dennehy, Caroline Barclay, Daniel Schorr

Games, you either love it or you hate it. Nicholas Van Orton is a man who at first glance you don’t see a game of goose plates or man-worse-you-don’t do with his family. He is a very successful and therefore extremely wealthy businessman, living alone in a gigantic house in which you could easily get lost. He is divorced and seems to live only for work. For his 48th birthday, he receives a kind of gift certificate from his brother Conrad (Sean Penn). He must contact CRS (Consumer Recreation Services) to redeem the certificate. He visits the company. CRS boss Jim Feingold (James Rebhorn) tries to explain to Nicholas what The Game is all about, but remains very vague in his wording. Each game is adapted to the participant. It’s a big vacation, but you’re not going on vacation, the vacation is coming to you. He even claims that they have never had a dissatisfied customer.

Nicholas is of course skeptical, yet intrigued and decides to join in. He is then subjected to all kinds of tests, both psychological and physical, and questionnaires. His irritation grows when it turns out that it takes a whole day. When he receives a phone call a day later, during an important meeting, that his application has been rejected because he does not meet the requirements, he is – rightly – indignant. When he returned home, however, there was a clown doll in his driveway, a rather gruesome discovery for someone whose father landed in exactly the same spot in exactly the same position after his successful suicide attempt. From that moment on, Nicholas realizes that he is in the game and the events in his otherwise orderly life become more and more strange.

For a control freak like Nicholas, this is not an enrichment of his life, but a nightmare. From small things to a leaking pen and a briefcase that won’t open, to big things like having to ride in an ambulance to help an unwell man and being stuck in an elevator, Nicholas doesn’t recognize his life again.

The first hour of ‘The Game’ has a slow build-up, but David Fincher manages to bring in the tension well. The atmosphere is ominous, partly due to the music of Howard Shore. The viewer is regularly misled. Apart from a few illogical points, the script has therefore been a perfect basis for this third directorial project by Fincher (‘Alien 3’ and ‘Se7en’ preceded this film). The two main themes used have been used in thrillers before, but the combination of the two works great. The first theme is “a normal person who suddenly finds himself in an extreme situation and how he or she copes with it” and the second theme is “a conspiracy that can turn a person’s life upside down”.

Michael Douglas puts in a fine performance as Van Orton. The development of his character is very convincing, from cold, calculating businessman, to a distraught and helpless victim, who has lost everything he holds dear. Sean Penn’s role is almost reduced to a cameo, but when he’s in the picture, he steals the show. Deborah Kara Unger also knows how to captivate the viewer and is one of the most important characters who always manages to mislead the viewer.

‘The Game’ is a very entertaining thriller, which has certainly not damaged Fincher’s reputation up to that point. It is best to see this film without too much prior knowledge. If you like winning, watch this film and be surprised!