It's Completely Lacking In Credibility

Rating: 4/10 (18 November 2010)

I like psychological suspense-thrillers. What makes them work really well is believability. No matter how outlandish the story may seem, there has to be at least a bit of your brain that's saying as you watch "I could see that happening." That's when you get drawn into the story. That's when suspense takes hold. That's when you begin to be able to feel the fear of the main characters. That's when a psychological suspense-thriller works really well. Unfortunately, "The Game" doesn't work really well. It doesn't do any of the above. It's simply not believable. Never once in the movie (or at least once we were introduced to the game that Nicholas Van Orten was playing) did I have the thought that "I could see this happening." Never. It was too outlandish. Think about it. In order for this game to work, pretty much the entire City of San Francisco would have had to have been onside. Van Orten could have done any number of things or (and here's the real problem) encountered any number of people who - not being in on the game - could have changed things completely. The game (to me at least) is unworkable; unplayable. Since that was my feeling right from the start, I didn't get pulled in by the story. I found it long and drawn out. The writers tried valiantly to keep me on my toes by throwing twists and turns and surprises - but I really didn't care, because I just didn't believe any of it. Too bad.
Too bad, because the cast was good and solid. Michael Douglas was in character, playing a fairly stereotypical character for him, as Nicholas Van Orten, and Sean Penn did well as his little brother Conrad, who presented Nicholas with the game as a birthday gift. I liked Deborah Unger as the "waitress" Christine. Honestly? She's attractive, but not the most beautiful woman I've ever seen, but she had a chemistry with Douglas, and she did present a real aura of sexiness, even though that wasn't particularly what the character was about (the "I'm not wearing any underwear" comment notwithstanding!)
The basic idea of a movie about a "reality game" (made in the era before "reality TV" became a staple) was interesting. If this had just been toned down a bit, and the scale of the game not been quite so large, it would have been more credible and therefore much more suspenseful and satisfying.