They won't leave me alone! I'm a goddamn human-piñata!

Rating: 9/10 (7 February 2009)

David Fincher follows up "Seven", the by "The Silence of The Lambs" influenced thriller that broke out of genre conventions and subsequently became the second most influential thriller of the nineties, with another puzzler. "The Game" lays it's cards out in plain sight from the get-go: figuring out the object of the game is the game. Which doubles the fun if Fincher's smoke and mirrors fool you.
When his unkempt brother Conrad (Sean Penn) first tries to warm him up for the idea of actually participating in "The Game", Nicholas Van Orton (Michael Douglas), aggravated, says 'he hates surprises'. Conrad pleads: 'It's a profound life experience'; prompting Nicholas to reply: 'Like a stroke?'. Fools speak the truth when they're joking. Van Orton soon finds himself in a roller-coaster with no seat belts, and he forcibly comes to an insight when the cart plummets into the abyss.
If there is such a category, I'd put "The Game" in with escapist thrillers: pretension-less, fun, keep-you-guessing films with twists as a goal onto itself. Therefore, people shouldn't stumble over the improbabilities in the plot. It's like reading Jim Thompson, a man who does not know the meaning of the word restraint as far as hardboiled characters and plot u-turns go.
Fincher directs straightforward thrillers with such a sleight of hand, I can think of no contemporary directors who can match his skills in the genre. Cinematographically, "The Game" was well ahead of it's time. It seems DP Harris Savides and Fincher make a great team: they also collaborated on "Zodiac". Both films' night time scenes take my breath away. Add three time Academy Award winning composer Howard Shore into the mix and what you get is a very effective psychological thriller.