It's all in the game

Rating: 6/10 (31 December 2014)

"The Game" is a 1997 thriller starring Michael Douglas. It was directed by David Fincher following his work on "Se7en". As a whole, I had a decent time watching the film. It began to drag a little during the second half and they could have probably cut 15-20 minutes (for example the whole Mexico part) and it would have been equally good or even better with a runtime under two hours. At some point, I felt that the whole scheme scenario simply got a bit repetitive and at the end, it was also one twist too many for my taste when he "shot" his brother. That brother is played by Sean Penn shortly after his very first Academy Award nomination. The female main character is played by Deborah Kara Unger in her probably most known role. She disappeared from the limelight quickly unlike Penn and Douglas. Other than that, the far too early deceased James Rebhorn plays one of the bigger roles as well and I quite enjoyed watching him here.
My favorite scene of the film is probably the "White Rabbit" scene. The song is great and fit the tone and visuals of the return of the main character to his house just perfectly. The newscaster speaking to Douglas' character was a nice inclusion as well. I am a bit surprised this film did not get any awards attention at all. Fincher was very famous at that point already. However, I have to say that I had quite a few problems with the whole plot. There were a handful scenes that they could not have foreseen his actions entirely and yet it was supposed to look like they always had everything under control. And let's not forget the risk factor. If the Game was common for upper class, there must have been some kind of accident in the past if they risk the "players" having guns or to almost drown in their cars. People would have sued this company a hundred times already I guess. So, yeah, it is a truly unrealistic film for more reasons than one. But if you manage to look past that, you can still have a pretty good time. Nonetheless I have to say, I was slightly unimpressed with Douglas here. Given the fact we see the film completely from his perspective and he is in absolutely every scene from start to finish for two hours, his performance did not wow me the way I had hoped.
As a whole, Brancato and Ferris did a solid job with the script (also Douglas' character's transformation from being the grinch he is early on into who he is at the end), especially looking at the fact that they are the ones behind "Catwoman". It is by no means flawless, but certainly has its strengths. The movie itself can be described just like that. Recommended.