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The Game
A wealthy billionaire receives a gift from his troubled brother. It turns out to be a gift card for a program at customer recreational service. Initially hesitant to use it due to his busy lifestyle he eventually decides to give it a try. As part of registration he is asked to under go an extensive set of tests in wide variety of departments. Intellectual and biological. With a little uncertainty he is made aware that the game has begun.
The movie has a dark tone to it. Its funny how the movie doesn't have a sex scene because every aspect of the movie gives indication that there will be one at some point in the movie.The movie will be a little too predictable to anyone who is watching it for the first time now. You can see some twists coming from a mile away.But for 1997 crowd I think the twists might be a surprise. David Fincher is an auteur. But his directorial style is easy to copy and his auteur range is limited. His style quickly dissipates if he tries to do different kinds of movies. He is strong as long as he sticks with making movies about deviant people doing deviant things. Even a movie like Benjamin Button has a lot of mean characters.
The movie starts with a video recorder footage of Michael Douglas from his childhood. It highlights the strained relationship with his incredibly rich father. Eventually he kills himself. All this forms a very strong foundation to the personality of Michael D. He is the responsible on in his family and his brother is out there and is probably an addict running away from responsibilities. We meet Michael Douglas at a stage in his life when he is suffering from midlife crisis but his position of privilege forces him to suck it up and live a rich life. This is the first point of disconnect in this movie. Its very hard for audience to connect with and relate to a character who is super rich unless he is Bruce Wayne. So audience are left wondering why doesn't he just suck it up and live in a 100 million dollar building. What this does is it relegates the movie into a genre picture and doesn't emotionally resonate with audience. Audience from this point on are in it for thrills and scares and nothing else. With that out of the way. The movie has a city underbelly feel to it. Once our protagonist signs up to this shady company, his world starts changing. His privacy starts shrinking. Director captures that very well. Whats more interesting is the world of his high powered executive is already a shady world and add to that this organisation, it becomes increasingly clear that the guy is unprepared for whats coming. Its most definitely a 90s movie. You can see all the cheesiness in the movie. Douglas plays the role like he did wall street's Gordon Gekko. But with a little more compassion. Sean Penn is okay in the movie.
The movie does paranoia 90s style like JFK but little more heightened and simple. Its like Fincher said "The Sting on steroids". The resources of recreation center seem endless and vast. They set up and dismantle offices overnight. They own whole buildings. While signing up the company rep mentions that the service offers everything he doesn't have. As the movie goes on, one by one the checklist starts filling up. Initially the games offers him thrill. Slowly it seemingly takes away everything he has. Whats starts as petty becomes dangerous. The game never lets up. Its like an elaborate sting where in our character is always one step behind. It plays with deception very well. Whom you can trust and whom you cannot. There is a meta quality to it all. Movies are make believe and this film is showing movie within a movie. But its in Fincher style. The difference between this and something like the sting is that this movie hides its cards from us where as the stings shows all its cards. That's a problem because if you hide your cards, you are becoming a mystery thriller. You are forcing audience to figure out the mystery and not just be entertained by the film as a whole. Its like holding carrot at the end of dirty road. Audience don't bother that the road is dirty and will only focus on the carrot. The days and nights blend in the movie so well. The days are cloudy and nights are neon filled. But to me, the best part of the movie is the way game makes him realize his privilege. Loosing it all has a special meaning in the movie. There is a sequence in the movie where our character is kidnapped and placed in a graveyard in mexico I think. The movie has a very distinct color and cinematography to it. The character doesn't have any money on him in a foreign country. He is brought down to earth by his sudden poverty. He is humbled forcibly.The shots of Michael Douglas walking on the streets of mexico in in white dusty suit among the public and with that cinematography is breathtaking. It captures a man who lost everything and doesn't belong there. He is forced into situations and conversations that he never thought he would be. Begging an immigration officer for money.
All these are good ,but the movie falls into a repetitive cycle. As we go deep into the story everything our character gets involved in feels a little staged. Lot of things come at him at once. Apart from suspension of disbelief , the kind of unrealistic nature of these elaborate stings gives the illusion that anything is possible. Which is not a good thing. Perfect is never interesting. The movie should have had scenarios where Michael Douglas veers of planned path and the whole sting sort of morphs according to new parameters. This would have made the movie interesting. He just falls into the trap like a duck.Nonetheless the movie does play with the idea of perceived danger vs actual danger. By the third act most of 1997 audience would have been exactly where Fincher wanted them to be. That is a good thing. All these makes the movie a good genre movie instead of a good movie. Director plays the mystery card early on and doesn't let up. Its a cable watch movie.
A wealthy billionaire receives a gift from his troubled brother. It turns out to be a gift card for a program at customer recreational service. Initially hesitant to use it due to his busy lifestyle he eventually decides to give it a try. As part of registration he is asked to under go an extensive set of tests in wide variety of departments. Intellectual and biological. With a little uncertainty he is made aware that the game has begun.
The movie has a dark tone to it. Its funny how the movie doesn't have a sex scene because every aspect of the movie gives indication that there will be one at some point in the movie.The movie will be a little too predictable to anyone who is watching it for the first time now. You can see some twists coming from a mile away.But for 1997 crowd I think the twists might be a surprise. David Fincher is an auteur. But his directorial style is easy to copy and his auteur range is limited. His style quickly dissipates if he tries to do different kinds of movies. He is strong as long as he sticks with making movies about deviant people doing deviant things. Even a movie like Benjamin Button has a lot of mean characters.
The movie starts with a video recorder footage of Michael Douglas from his childhood. It highlights the strained relationship with his incredibly rich father. Eventually he kills himself. All this forms a very strong foundation to the personality of Michael D. He is the responsible on in his family and his brother is out there and is probably an addict running away from responsibilities. We meet Michael Douglas at a stage in his life when he is suffering from midlife crisis but his position of privilege forces him to suck it up and live a rich life. This is the first point of disconnect in this movie. Its very hard for audience to connect with and relate to a character who is super rich unless he is Bruce Wayne. So audience are left wondering why doesn't he just suck it up and live in a 100 million dollar building. What this does is it relegates the movie into a genre picture and doesn't emotionally resonate with audience. Audience from this point on are in it for thrills and scares and nothing else. With that out of the way. The movie has a city underbelly feel to it. Once our protagonist signs up to this shady company, his world starts changing. His privacy starts shrinking. Director captures that very well. Whats more interesting is the world of his high powered executive is already a shady world and add to that this organisation, it becomes increasingly clear that the guy is unprepared for whats coming. Its most definitely a 90s movie. You can see all the cheesiness in the movie. Douglas plays the role like he did wall street's Gordon Gekko. But with a little more compassion. Sean Penn is okay in the movie.
The movie does paranoia 90s style like JFK but little more heightened and simple. Its like Fincher said "The Sting on steroids". The resources of recreation center seem endless and vast. They set up and dismantle offices overnight. They own whole buildings. While signing up the company rep mentions that the service offers everything he doesn't have. As the movie goes on, one by one the checklist starts filling up. Initially the games offers him thrill. Slowly it seemingly takes away everything he has. Whats starts as petty becomes dangerous. The game never lets up. Its like an elaborate sting where in our character is always one step behind. It plays with deception very well. Whom you can trust and whom you cannot. There is a meta quality to it all. Movies are make believe and this film is showing movie within a movie. But its in Fincher style. The difference between this and something like the sting is that this movie hides its cards from us where as the stings shows all its cards. That's a problem because if you hide your cards, you are becoming a mystery thriller. You are forcing audience to figure out the mystery and not just be entertained by the film as a whole. Its like holding carrot at the end of dirty road. Audience don't bother that the road is dirty and will only focus on the carrot. The days and nights blend in the movie so well. The days are cloudy and nights are neon filled. But to me, the best part of the movie is the way game makes him realize his privilege. Loosing it all has a special meaning in the movie. There is a sequence in the movie where our character is kidnapped and placed in a graveyard in mexico I think. The movie has a very distinct color and cinematography to it. The character doesn't have any money on him in a foreign country. He is brought down to earth by his sudden poverty. He is humbled forcibly.The shots of Michael Douglas walking on the streets of mexico in in white dusty suit among the public and with that cinematography is breathtaking. It captures a man who lost everything and doesn't belong there. He is forced into situations and conversations that he never thought he would be. Begging an immigration officer for money.
All these are good ,but the movie falls into a repetitive cycle. As we go deep into the story everything our character gets involved in feels a little staged. Lot of things come at him at once. Apart from suspension of disbelief , the kind of unrealistic nature of these elaborate stings gives the illusion that anything is possible. Which is not a good thing. Perfect is never interesting. The movie should have had scenarios where Michael Douglas veers of planned path and the whole sting sort of morphs according to new parameters. This would have made the movie interesting. He just falls into the trap like a duck.Nonetheless the movie does play with the idea of perceived danger vs actual danger. By the third act most of 1997 audience would have been exactly where Fincher wanted them to be. That is a good thing. All these makes the movie a good genre movie instead of a good movie. Director plays the mystery card early on and doesn't let up. Its a cable watch movie.