Game over

Rating: 8/10 (13 July 2008)

What really sets "The Game" apart is the metaphysical undercurrent. As a mystery action-thriller, it's great, full of plot-twists and tension. As the game that central-character, Nicholas Van Orton, was offered unfolds, and prank after elaborate prank turns to deadly ambiguous reality, Nicholas loses control of his life but also finds himself as the traveler in a Danteesque hell.
The metaphysical meaning is this: the whole experience works as some sort of purgatory for Nicholas, who gets a chance to redeem himself of his sins (him being a ruthless capitalist businessman and alienated from pretty much everyone around him). At the start of the game, the mysterious organization company CRS (a sort of god, though in the end guided by the mere mortal players' wishes) evaluates Nicholas and his abilities, so that it organizes the perfect experience for him. At the apex of the game, and when Nicholas loses his money, he is being left for dead in a cemetery in Mexico. He metaphorically dies and is reborn a changed man.
The director, David Fincher (of "Seven" and "Fight-Club" fame) obviously had a ball filming this.