Functional gimmick expertly executed

Rating: 5/10 (26 September 2014)

Nicholas Van Orton (Michael Douglas) is a lonely divorcée and extremely wealthy San Francisco investment banker. It's his 48th birthday which is the age of his father when he committed suicide in front of him. His absentee black sheep brother Conrad (Sean Penn) returns and gives him a card. What do you get for somebody who has everything? Consumer Recreation Services (CRS) which Conrad claims to be the best thing that ever happened to him. It's an unique game different for everybody. Jim Feingold (James Rebhorn) does the examination for CRS but Nicholas is rejected. Then he finds a dummy sprawled on his driveway with a CRS key and the game begins. Strange things start to happen. Waitress Christine (Deborah Kara Unger) spills on him and gets fired. They both get sucked into the CRS game.
This starts too slowly. There is a general lack of energy. The first 30 minutes almost lost me waiting for things to happen. It wants to be atmospheric. David Fincher is certainly good enough but I find myself not caring about Nicholas. He's a rich annoying douche with very little to like about him. It's an interesting if somewhat unoriginal gimmick. It would probably be better as a horror. I guess it would be helpful if I am naive enough to buy into the game. It would also be helpful to have a younger, sweeter, and more innocent actress to play Christine. The movie never escapes its manufactured sensibility. The point of most of this genre is to have Nicholas act paranoid and for the audience to question his sanity. His sanity is never in doubt in the mind of the audience. It's just one insane thing happening to him after another. And the cops would never say it's OK to murder him as long as Nicholas signed the contract. It's kinda stupid but the movie asks the audience to buy into it. It's so well made that I'm fine with how crazy this game gets. However it does go one too many turn. It would have been much better to leave with a sad ending.