The Game
Michael Douglas plays the successful businessman who gets a rather unusual birthday present from his brother Conrad (Sean Penn), a personalized game constructed by a high-tech company called CSR (Consumer Recreation Services), and promises that it will be fun. He hesitates at first, but feels drawn and interested by the idea and ends up at CRS taking a lot of psychological and physical tests needed for the tailor made adventure. On his way home he finds a dummy dressed as a clown in the drive-way, laying just as his father was found. He takes the clown with him, finding a key in it’s mouth and getting some strange television broadcasts, and after that, the game begins.
The screenplay was written by the same people behind The Net, and is very simple. In fact the only reason why this movie is really good is because of the ending. While watching it you can’t really grasp that there is something special going on, but when they sum the game all up and reveals the twist, most people will find the movie a lot better than if it ended in any other way.
From a technical standpoint the movie looks brilliant. Director David Fincher is one of the directors out there that takes a lot of time and pride in the style and look of the movie, as he does in Se7en and Fight Club. The flashbacks in super8 from his memories of his father really seems real though in huge contrast to the movie itself and the variation in quality and colour. But that is also the only thing for a while that entertains the audience, since at times the movie is actually boring and too slow.
For some The Game can be quite interesting in retrospect, since it kind of has a hidden point. As Michael Douglas is being fooled by a company to be part of a game that isn’t real but for entertainment of some sort, so are we, the movie-watchers. Just as Douglas finds out in a scene that everything in the room is fake, we are being made to believe for a short time that what’s going on the screen is real. The only difference is that the game we are watching cost a lot more that the game Michael Douglas played.
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