A superb, tortuous and suspenseful thriller

Rating: 10/10 (15 December 2000)

The Game is a tortuous and superb suspenseful thriller by David Fincher. The film leads the viewer down many uncertain paths, has we follow the nightmare world in which Michael Douglas' character is thrown into. Douglas is good as Nicholas Van Orton, a very wealthy businessman who has everything, except true happiness and excitement in his life. He lives alone in a large mansion, and is tended to by his trusty long-serving female maid. We soon learn his father committed suicide by jumping from the top of the mansion. Van Orton occasionally has flashbacks of the tragedy.
On his 48th birthday Nicholas is paid a visit by his younger brother Conrad, played by Sean Penn. Over dinner, Conrad gives Nicholas a gift, an invitation to visit Consumer Recreation Services (CRS) to enrol for The Game, an ambiguous life-altering event that Conrad says has changed his life. He tells Nicholas that it will make his life fun. Nicholas visits CRS and is greeted by James Rebhorn. He fills in a long application form, which asks him many obscure questions. He then has to endure more examining, a medical, and sitting through some bizarre images shown on a film.

The next day Nicholas receives a phone call to inform him he has failed the test for The Game; but unknowingly to him, The Game will now begin. Things immediately start to go wrong for him. His pen leaks ink on his shirt, and his briefcase won't open. While at a restaurant, he has wine spilled on him by a waitress named Christine (sexy Deborah Kara Unger) she is then fired by her boss, and Nicholas receives a note to follow her. While with her, he finds himself locked in a lift, has to run from a police dog, and has to jump from a fire escape into a garbage skip.
This is just the start of The Game for Nicholas. He will later find himself with incriminating photos and cocaine in his hotel room. He will find himself trapped in a taxi that is sinking. He will wake up in a flimsy wooden coffin in Mexico, with no money and identification on him. A man who was once powerful is now transformed into an emotional wreck. Eventually, he has to find the man who interviewed him for The Game, James Rebhorn. He enters CRS with a loaded pistol, and takes Christine hostage. The conclusion is slightly incredulous, but fittingly appropriate. The Game is a ride you'll want to take again.