Great idea doesn't make a great movie

Rating: 6/10 (8 October 2004)

David Fincher has proved that given a taut script, he will turn it into a great movie. Seven proved this and, to a lesser extent, David Koepp's Panic Room. Two of his movies, Fight Club and, this, The Game, prove that he can't quite turn a great idea into a great movie.
The premise of The Game is fine: a mischievous brother of a bored businessman finds a company that offers the customer a roller-coaster ride of an experience...but in the real-world rather than in a theme park. The brother buys him the "ride" as a birthday present.
The movie does reach a natural conclusion, but it has too much implausibility to get there. It seems as if the script was tweaked at the last moment to either ratchet up the excitement or to simply get the audience to ask themselves, "how will our hero get himself out of this now?". In the end, the audience will probably feel cheated by the answer. Perhaps if it didn't quite take itself so seriously, then I might have let it get away with it a bit.
Michael Douglas is most certainly not extending his acting talent here. He plays the man-in-peril so well now and, as he gets to play it so seriously (and leave his pants on), you wonder if working with Fincher was the real reason he got involved with this. Still, you can't help think that Douglas was left scratching his head at the whole thing.
Sean Penn is criminally underused as Douglas' brother. Penn plays his part so less straight-faced than Douglas that you almost expect him to give you a knowing wink. Perhaps Penn hoped that the rest of the cast and crew would treat it the same way as he obviously did.
The Game, though, is an extremely well-made film. Fincher manages to incorporate some ingenuity (the clever car-into-the-water sequence) and craftsmanship to the proceedings. Undoubtedly, Fincher will make some great films in his career, but let's hope he picks his scripts carefully.
6 out of 10.