The Game
by David Fincher
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Actor: Deborah Kara Unger, James Rebhorn, Michael Douglas, Peter Donat, Sean PennDirector: David Fincher
Brand: Universal Studios
Producer: Ceán Chaffin
Producer: John D. Brancato
Writer: John D. Brancato
Producer: Jonathan Mostow
Producer: Michael Ferris
Writer: Michael Ferris
Producer: Steve Golin
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language); German (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 129 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-08-27
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Universal Studios
DVD Reviews of The Game
DVD Review: THE GAME-This couldn't happen in real life, could it?
Summary: 5 Stars
THE GAME is another wonderful Michael Douglas film and I rate it at 5 stars. This film will really be appreciated by fans that enjoy dissecting a complex plot. The story, although hard to swallow and farfetched, was exceptionally engaging and kept my interest from start to finish. I thought on my first viewing that this film would have a sequel, but was proven wrong by events.
THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION COULD RUIN ENJOYMENT OF THE PLOT:
Nicholas Van Orton played by Michael Douglas is a wealthy banker, but a loner who even spends his birthday away from people. In the year of his 48th birthday (the age his father committed suicide and on the verge of classic mid-life crisis) his distant brother gives Nicholas a card giving him entry to unusual entertainment provided by something called Consumer Recreation Services (CRS). Giving in to curiosity, Nicholas visits CRS and all kinds of weird things start to happen to him. Prior to admitting him to participate he is required to take a series of mental and physical tests which were apparently run to determine his strengths, weaknesses, and perhaps map out some sort of efficient "game plan" tailored just for him. One statement I remember CRS telling him is that if you don't go to THE GAME, it will come to you.
He receives a phone call telling him that he failed the tests and is rejected by the organization. He forgets about CRS, but then overhears several people talking about "the game" and what life-changing opportunities it provides. He notices several such "loud" conversations in public, and goes to the trouble of introducing himself and speaking with a couple of apparently new members of his private club. All they will tell him is they wish they were just starting "the game" and one man quotes the bible saying "where I was once blind I now can see". Once he is certain he has actually been admitted to THE GAME, he tries to return to the offices of CRS where he received his tests, only to find that no signs of their facilities remain and for all effects, this organization never even "existed".
This initially "mild" form of harassment (i.e., being misinformed of his membership status, having drinks spilled on him in restaurants, strange people banging into him, folks behaving very strangely in rest rooms and other public places, empty toilets overflowing, his attaché case jamming at important business meetings, the pen CRS told him to keep leaking on his shirt, individuals collapsing in the street at his feet, etc.), gradually transitions to increasingly overt and often potentially life-threatening experiences which slowly work on his mental condition. All the more strange is the fact that he is provided the means of barely escaping his next experience by receiving an item or remembering a fact he learned during a prior event. Some examples of these increasingly life threatening events include: his estate being broken into and ransacked, being stranded in a darkened elevator, his cab driver driving his CRS taxi into the river almost drowning him, large crowds of people disappearing in a coordinated way from public places, being drugged, attacked by hooded gun men emerging from a large van marked Cable Repair Services, abducted and ultimately waking up in a crypt and stranded without cash, credit cards or passport in Mexico).
The mental harassment is designed at first to merely embarrass or make uncomfortable, mildly inconvenience, then to be serious and painful, and after enough repetition and conditioning for him to associate these strange events, to effectively torture and eventually drive insane. Since almost every detail is staged redundantly there are no correct decisions left for him to make, and no avoiding the sequence of painful situations. He is ultimately like a caged animal walking wall to wall in a classic avoidance-avoidance conflict leading to insanity. The issue of the cost-effectiveness of this game plan is something the film never addresses, but we are too engrossed to think about this during the movie.
One thing is certain, these people do not want to publicly kill him or leave any permanent record of injury due to anything other than a random event. The purpose of THE GAME seems not to be simple murder, but to professionally destroy, discredit and cause a very gradual physical and mental breakdown which will result in his being either jailed because of acting out displaced aggressions, hospitalized or institutionalized where he can "die" or be subjected to something while well out of public scrutiny.
In his former professional life he could certainly have made enemies, and what better means could they use to destroy him with impunity? While his financial and mental conditions still enable him to investigate CRS, he believes he acquires "evidence" that one of the office workers at CRS was a hired professional actor, more likely to have been provided by Actors Equity than some private detective or intelligence agency (CIA?). As the story unfolds this evidence was probably "fed" to him as part of the plot which is just full of strange twists and complications, all leading him no place.
His entire personality changes as he undergoes transformation from a strong business-world predator to the cowering subject of physical and mental harassment. It is sad but interesting to watch his gradual disintegration as forces outside of his control consume him. The ending was a bit strange and is the reason I thought there would be a sequel.
IF THE ABOVE MATERIAL CAN RUIN THE ENDING THE FOLLOWING IS WORSE:
The film can only be said to have a rediculous ending when Van Orton confronts his brother who he now believes is in on the game plan on the roof of the CRS building. At the end of the story after Van Orton believes he has shot his brother he actually jumps off the roof of the high rise CRS building intent on suicide because of his grief. He is surprised to learn after smashing through the break away glass of a fake skylight, that he safely lands on a huge airbag carefully placed to break his tremendous fall. He then sees his resurrected brother and all the other people dressed up in black tie to celebrate his birthday. It was, after all, just a "harmless" gag.
At the end of the story there are no hard feelings and all gracious smiles as he is presented with the check for the elaborate hoaxes that CRS has staged for his "entertainment". Even though he has probably aged over 30 years as a result of continuous mental trauma in just a number of days, he goes from table to table thanking the guests for making it a very special party. He even asks out the very beautiful and treacherous lady who slipped him a mickey during the ordeal. Well, the film was too entertaining for that very weak and silly ending to ruin it, but it did erode what I thought was (up until then) a very well done and thought out thriller.
Description of The Game
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