Let's Toast the Man Who Has Everything

Rating: 8/10 (18 February 2006)

Hot on the heels of his breakthrough success with 1995's SE7EN David Fincher, at that moment Hollywood's new It director, went one step further into the darkness within an everyman's life with this twisting refrigerator movie that tells the story of "the man who had everything", Nicholas Van Orton, who gets a special gift from his tricky brother Conrad (Sean Penn). This gift is a "game" which a company named Consumer Recreation Services provides "whatever the customer lacks" in entertainment. Nicholas, a humorless man, reverts to his old life -- until odd incidents begin to manifest themselves, growing in severity until he realizes that this is not a game and his very life is threatened.
With conscious nods to NORTH BY NORTHWEST and SECONDS, THE GAME is an underground contemporary classic that lets us is on the perverse pleasure of being mean to someone and seeing their cold veneer and control-freak nature crumble under pressure. David Fincher knows suspense and how to tighten the noose around his main character and he throws all the stops out, like the Wizard behind the curtain in THE WIZARD OF OZ. He loves making even the most seasoned film-buff try and second guess the plot, only to throw a monkey wrench into the proceedings. Not much else can be said about the supporting actors (Sean Penn and Deborah Kara Unger) without giving crucial elements away, but it's enough to say they're both fine as wine. Penn is playful, but a loving brother; Unger is smoldering like the best of femme fatales. Michael Douglas, however, is an actor used to this kind of role -- the persecuted Everyman -- and it's great fun to watch his control give away to frantic desperation as he breaks through that fourth wall to reveal who is hiding behind that green curtain.