Fincher, you maggot, I don't love you anymore

Rating: 5/10 (26 November 2005)

Up till last Friday I was convinced that David Fincher can do no wrong. 'Se7en' is mind-blowing. 'Fight Club' is quite possibly the best movie I've ever seen. 'Panic Room', while not as excellent, is still a highly entertaining thriller. Well, there is also 'Alien 3'. I saw it a long time ago and all I remember is that it takes place in a prison this time. As if Ripley hadn't had enough already. I'm pretty sure I liked it, though. I was... twelve? I liked almost everything then. But it's perfectly likely that the movie is genuinely good on its own. I just don't remember. Anyway, I think 'Alien 3' can be safely excluded from the count. IMDb claims that Fincher left the production early owing to a conflict with the studio and practically disowned the movie.
So, 'Se7en', 'Fight Club' and 'Panic Room'. Three high scores. 75% of Fincher's whole filmography. It wasn't much of a leap to presume that his only movie that I had NOT seen yet, would be just as good. The higher the expectations, the more bitter the disappointment. Fincher won't have it easy to earn my trust back. 'Se7en' and 'Fight Club' are still brilliant, nothing will ever change that, but the implicit faith I had in the man took a very hard blow.
Actually I can't really say that it's such a bad movie. It's far far away from the disasters of 'Elektra' or 'Battlefield Earth' calibre (there are probably oodles of non-sf and non-comic-book bad movies but I pointedly avoid any contact with them; I'm a science-fiction junkie so I'm willing to see it even at its absolute lowest, but when other genres are concerned, my standards are still in fully working order). So far away, that it might as well be in a different galaxy. It's never boring. There is the always-present tension, definitely Fincher's forte. Michael Douglas is unquestionably well-suited for the role and holds his own quite nicely. The premise of such thorough manipulation of reality and how said manipulation can make a remarkably intelligent and successful man completely lose his bearing and start operating almost solely on instinct, is certainly noteworthy.
It doesn't change the fact, that 'The Game' is one of the most irritating movies that I've ever seen. The plot is so ridiculously far-fetched, the stunt brought to such absurd level, that the movie has totally no credibility.
The Game, an extraordinarily complicated and actually life-threatening role play, is based only on a personality test. Sorry, but I just don't buy it. Granted, it's a very comprehensive personality test, but even giving it the benefit of doubt and kindly assuming that such accurate analysis and resulting behaviour predictions are possible, there are also some environmental factors, depending purely on coincidence, that simply cannot be controlled. What if Michael Douglas decided to jump off the roof from a place five metres to the left? It looked exactly the same. Well, not that it really matters so much, I'm still lost at the personality test stage.
Besides the scale of the whole show is completely unbelievable. It involves dozens of people. It requires assistance from various institutions, even those of public service (like the embassy in Mexico). Breaking into the main character's house and vandalizing it, staging his killing his own brother, manipulating the TV transmissions, it all seem much too extreme to be meant just for amusement. It would be much more plausible if the mysterious SRC (CRS?) company was really after Micheal Douglas' lots and lots of millions. A colossal amount of money is the only thing that I could imagine to possibly make people go to such lengths. OK, they drew a very impressive bill at the end, but it was surely nowhere near the size of main character's bank account.
Then ending is undoubtedly surprising, but not in a good way. The happy-end seems forced. It doesn't really fit. It certainly is the least lousy option for Micheal Douglas, but it's destructive for the movie. It's as if the air suddenly came out of the figurative balloon. You feel bewildered, cheated and slightly outraged, that the fun has ended too soon and not how it supposed to.
The last half an hour is by far the most annoying part of the movie. The plot executes a shocking twist every five minutes, completely changing the whole perspective and leaving the audience just as dumbstruck as the main character must feel. That's probably the result Fincher was going for - to befuddle the audience totally and without mercy. It's really effective, I have to give him that. It's just that every time the story made a sudden swerve in an entirely new direction, I kept expecting Fincher to just jump on screen, yell 'Fooled you AGAIN!' and start cackling evilly. I can't say that it was a particularly pleasant feeling. Made the badness of the ending hit even harder. Shame on you, Fincher.
Now it's just Tarantino left. Four movies, four wins. My only constant in the movie universe. Oh oh wait, there's Darren Aronofsky, too. So perhaps the world isn't such a dark and hopeless place, after all. Quite a relief, actually.