Ruined by the Ending

Rating: 3/10 (6 May 2017)

Can the last five minutes of a film ruin what was until that point a really great thriller? Yes, they can, as the ending of The Game demonstrates. This review contains a spoiler, so if you don't want to know the ending, look away now. The premise of the story is a rich man agreeing to take part in a game. He knows nothing about it or the rules, but we're led to believe that his rather empty, wealthy life has left him with an overwhelming ennui, so this slightly rash decision on his part was sort of credible. At the end we discover that all the terrible things that have happened to him (being shot at, nearly drowned, buried alive in Mexico, his beautiful house being trashed, losing his multi-million dollar fortune) were all faked to make him think these things were happening. I could almost have bought that. BUT, and here's the clincher for me, the final act in the game was to make him believe he shot his own brother dead. Believing this, he leaps from the roof of the building to kill himself. He falls firstly through the glass roof of the restaurant below, then into a huge inflatable crash mat, put there to cushion his 10-storey fall. Yes, this was just another trick--part of the game. The whole game was a birthday treat paid for by his brother to spice up his life a bit. Uh huh. What if he'd jumped a few feet to one side? Are we seriously meant to believe that his brother would risk him missing the mat and exploding on the sidewalk as part of a birthday treat? Ludicrous. And then, discovering all this, the rich guy is all smiles and handshakes and thanks for a great time? Wow. Even watching this movie made me want to kill everyone involved in the game. How could he go through it and just... laugh it off? Michael Douglas is exceptionally good in the film. Up until the end it's a great film. But three stars from me.