Live a little. Place the game

Rating: 8/10 (5 March 2014)

It's no surprise, this film, with it's originality of story, is steered by Se7en director David Fincher, though really at the time it was a low profile movie that came and went, hitting the video shelves within months that followed. Douglas of course fits this role, as a sour, bitter, ex divorcée, who lives a life of riches, as an investment banker, or something like that, with a great spread, and has just turned 48. His younger, coke dependant, mentally troubled brother (Penn, in good form) who like other people, close, who have been shunned away from him, gives him a gift, and thus what begins, becomes one living nightmare after the next. He's given this voucher for a mind and health improvement facility, called Consumer Recreational Services, where based on many questions and analysis's, improves that life of the person (player) who partakes in the test. I mean, really what do you give for the man who has everything. Okay, I will admit this movie is very far fetched, but there's a message there too. We see a little bit, how the Douglas character has became the way he is when witness to his father's suicide as a kid, in light coloured sepia tones of flashback done, in of fast motion, that are pretty cool, and creative. The character Douglas creates, that of Nicholas Van Orton, is one of longing fascination. He's an angry and one might say, though not really knowing him, intimately, grudgeful guy, but one thing of certitude, is that, he's not happy, or content. At the end of the film, we learn how the real game is played, as though one big joke has been played on us through the entirety of the movie, as Douglas too, but it's an exciting and maddening ride getting there. The jump scene and landing, like the one in Lethal Weapon, here, more spectacular, is just another far fetched moment, which has you asking, "How can an ending like this exist?" but for this film, it works. Douglas, who's never played it more straighter or stricter, and the shaky, fidgety character of Penn are two other reasons, apart from the film's originality to check this low profile, but "goodie" pic out. Not as good as Seven, but who's judging.