Director Report Card: David Fincher (1997)

4. The Game

“The Game” was almost David Fincher’s first post-“Alien 3” project. Fincher's production company, Propaganda Films, began developing the project in the early nineties for Jonathan Mostow to direct. It went into turnaround a couple of times and ended up back on Fincher's desk. When Brad Pitt agreed to star in "Seven," that project got priority but the director would return to the twisting thriller shortly afterwards. "The Game" went from being a mid-thriller to the hotly anticipated new project from one of Hollywood's hottest new filmmakers. 

Nicholas Van Ortan is a king of industry, a millionaire investment banker who gets to call the big shots. He's also deeply unhappy, haunted by the suicide of his father and his estrangement from his ex-wife. On his 48th birthday, the same age his father died, Nicholas is visited by Conrad, his hellraising brother. Conrad gives him an unusual gift: An invitation to a game, organized by a mysterious company called Consumer Recreation Services. Nicolas signs up for it and soon finds his life turned upside down. He is manipulated and toyed by a seemingly omniscient corporation ready to ruin his life. He must unravel this game before it kills him.

Fincher has described "The Game" as being about a loss of control. The film addresses this idea in both big and small ways. From a certain perspective, the movie is a dark comedy about everything that can wrong doing just that. Nick's game begins with an escalating series of petty inconveniences. The CRS test goes on too long and makes him wait too much. He gets an interrupting phone call during an important meeting. During another business meeting, he can't get a suitcase open. A waitress spills a dish on his expensive suit. A glass shatters in the sink. A toilet overflows when he attempts to flush it. It's almost funny the way the film piles annoying little bullshit incidents, one after another, into its super-rich protagonist. 

Yet "The Game" approaches this idea, of losing control of your life, in much larger ways too. Nicholas Van Ortan is rich and powerful but his wife still left him. His father still committed suicide. The scars of that incident still force himself and his brother further apart. His success in life hasn't made him happy. Inevitably, at one point, the game sticks Nick inside a coffin, forcing him to consider the ultimate fact: No matter how powerful we think we are, we are all at the whims of fate. It doesn't take much to make a rich man poor the next day and none of us know when we are going to end up in the ground.

Fincher has also described "The Game" as being influenced by "A Christmas Carol." There's definitely some of Ebenezer Scrooge's DNA in Nicholas Van Ortan, since they both reside in empty houses, alone with their lifetime of regrets. The film repeatedly draws attention to Van Ortan's opulent life style and the casual way he ruins other people's lives, notably a long time publishing executive he lets go cruelly. "The Game" definitely takes some glee in humiliating this rich asshole. Especially in a lengthy portion where he wakes up in a poor Mexican village, with no money of his own, forced to beg for help. 

These scenes speak to a wider theme of economic divide in the film. A character Nick repeatedly meets throughout his game is Christine. That's the clumsy waitress who ruins his suit, who he then gets fired without a second thought. These two people on opposite ends of the economic ladder – a rich money-trader and a lowly food server – are repeatedly thrust together throughout this story. In fact, he comes to her for help several times. It's also notable that Nick's game repeatedly forces him into poor areas. Whether that be an impoverished small town, a dingy alleyway, or a literal dumpster full of garbage, this rich scumbag is repeatedly forced to interact with the economic conditions his own greed has created. 

You don't have to be a rich dude to relate to "The Game." Once his game begins, Nick can no longer trust anyone. Sitting in an airport lobby, he looks suspiciously at everyone around him, wondering if they are part of the game too. Hotel employees, random people on the street, every face he encounters is soon a source of paranoia. Even his most private inner chamber is violated, when his TV starts talking to him. (Veteran television reporter Daniel Schorr putting in an amusing cameo as himself.) "The Game" expertly has the audience wondering if anyone they meet in the movie can be trusted, making us believe in a conspiracy that has infiltrated every level of reality. 

This paranoia, and the accompanying existential dread, is the main tool in the film's toolbox. Yet you can always count on David Fincher for assembling a fantastically thrilling sequence too. The most excitement moment in the movie concerns Nick being stuck in the backseat of a taxi as it careens towards a dock. Fincher's direction and editing is as tight as ever, the camera spinning alongside the vehicle as it races towards the water. The moment escalates nicely, the audience really feeling the pressure on the glass once the car sinks. "The Game" never quite tops that moment, as far as pure white-knuckle thrills go, though a scene where Nick and Clarice are chased by dogs is pretty good. (And also resembles a Levi's commercial Fincher had directed the year before this movie came out.)

Some smooth visuals is also something you can expect from any of Fincher's movies. Along with cinematographer Harris Savides, Fincher created a particular look for the film. The interiors, such as Van Ortan's lavish mansion, are often vast and full of detail. Yet, despite all the richness in these images, there's something cold and distant about them too. These are places that are warm yet are completely without love, which is a perfect representation of Van Ortan's rich-but-empty lifestyle. Those lavish details and symmetrical images can certainly be appreciated in their own right. A moment where a fire escape ladder clatters to the ground, right in the center of the shot, especially sticks out in my memory. As does Van Ortan's home being turned into a day-glo nightmare. 

"The Game" is an absorbing thriller with a lot of big ideas on its mind... That completely chokes at the end. As Nick zeroes in on the center of the conspiracy, he makes the gravest mistake of all. Spoiler alert for a twenty-three year old movie: He throws himself from the top of a skyscraper, mirroring his father's suicide, before landing safely on a massive airbag. Yes, "The Game" really is about a game. Nobody has actually been hurt during this journey. Nick's riches are intact. He has unknowingly been following every step of a massive plan, literally landing in the exact stop they wanted him in. (Considering "Seven" also ended with a convoluted scheme playing out just how the villain expected, it seems Dave had a real weakness for this style of plotting.) The film ends on an upbeat note, our hero redeemed and with a new love interest. Despite everything he went through, it still doesn't seem like Nick has earned that happy ending. The conclusion feels like a cheat, the machinations of the plot being revealed as a consequences-free exercise. A climax that keeps the paranoia boiling, where Nick is trapped in an unending game where he can never trust the reality right in front of him, would've been preferable.

Despite some flaws, “The Game” is perfectly cast. Michael Douglas playing this role, in retrospect, almost seems like a puckish meta-commentary on the entire concept, another one of “The Game's” absurd undercurrents. Because Michael Douglas played a lot of swaggering Master-of-the-Universe types who had their worlds turned upside down. Usually, this was at the hands of vindictive women and not massive conspiracies but the point stands. Nevertheless, Douglas is very well utilized in these types of roles. He has the right attitude, the air of someone who truly believes they are better than everyone else, but he's also good at depicting the desperation Nick feels later on in the movie. 

The supporting cast is strong too. Sean Penn, as Nicholas' hellion little brother, is also an extremely on-the-nose bit of casting considering Penn's own temperamental relationship with the lime light. Penn nicely brings a layer of levity to his early scenes with Douglas, before that chemistry turns into something much darker and more manic later on. Deborah Kara Unger, last seen in David Cronenberg's “Crash,” appears as Clarice the waitress. Unger gets to show a down-to-Earth vulnerability and a likable attitude in this role here. (This is definitely in contrast to her robotic turn in “Crash” but that was kind of a weird role after all.) She's an ideal foil to Douglas. James Rebhorn is also well cast as the fake-smiling voice of mundane authority, as the man who sets up Nick's game for him.

By the way, Fincher himself has admitted to being dissatisfied with the film's ending. In a later interview, he said he couldn't "figure out the last act." Which is pretty evident in the final product. Despite that, “The Game” was well-received in its day. The reviews were healthy, even if the movie didn't recreate “Seven's” stellar box office. In time, the film would find its way into various lists and into the Criterion Collection. Ultimately, “The Game” is incredibly successful as long as it keeps the pedal to the floor. Once it lets up on the ever-increasing stakes and paranoia, the movie sadly deflates. But it's okay. A movie that works for 120 minutes out of its 128 minute run time is still pretty good by any measure. [Grade: B]