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The Rules Change Frighteningly in `The Game' By John Hartl The Seattle Times Friday September 12, 1997

The fall movie season gets off to a most promising start this weekend with David Fincher's "The Game," which plays like a terrific paranoid thriller for about two-thirds of its running time, then trails off into a forced feel-good ending.

Still, in its own way, this finale is as ingeniously twisted and disturbing as the rest of the movie. Having effectively established a hellish urban universe and peopled it with characters for whom personal warmth is not an option, Fincher and his writers, John Brancato and Michael Ferris (who previously collaborated on "The Net"), can't really unravel what they've done.

The premise and tone of the picture are reminiscent of John Frankenheimer's great, unpopular 1966 thriller, "Seconds," which did follow through with an uncompromised ending - and paid a heavy price at the box office.

Both movies deal with sinister, impersonal corporations that promise to rejuvenate worn-out middle-aged men, then gradually turn their lives into nightmares. Both movies rely on creepy lighting, editing and sound effects to create an unsettling mood, and both play with the notion that 20th-century urban existence is literally hell.

The man who's ready for a change this time is Nicholas Van Orton, an incredibly wealthy San Francisco investment banker played by Michael Douglas - who hasn't been this good since he won an Oscar for playing a greed-is-good financial whiz 10 years ago in "Wall Street."

Van Orton is so brittle that when someone wishes him a happy birthday or suggests he have a nice day, he regards it as a threat. He treats his ex-wife, housekeeper, secretaries and associates with the same withering disdain.

The only sign of emotional life here is Van Orton's amusement at his rebellious younger brother, Conrad (Sean Penn), who gives him a unique birthday present: a game created especially for him by Consumer Recreation Services, which is described as "an entertainment service" and "an experiential book-of-the-month club."

Entertainment soon comes in startling forms. Van Orton has a conversation with his television set, which seems to be addressing him directly. He follows an apparently clumsy waitress (Deborah Kara Unger) who turns out to be either his friend or a femme fatale hired by the corporation. His life is endangered in a series of increasingly threatening situations.

References to biblical lessons and other literary allusions ("The Wizard of Oz," "Alice in Wonderland") suggest that C.R.S. has created a learning device for Van Orton. He could be seen as a late-20th-century Scrooge, visited by the ghosts of his traumatic past (suggested by hallucinatory flashbacks), his ruthless present (he tries to fire an old family friend but C.R.S. makes this technically impossible) and possible future (he wakes up in a coffin at one point).

Some like it dark, and Fincher, who directed "Alien 3" and "Seven," is definitely one of them. If Van Orton is Scrooge, then he's a Scrooge for our times: more complicated, ambiguous, perhaps unable to learn his life lessons.

Conventional resolution is simply not possible here. The official ending doesn't feel like the end of this story. Even after the credits roll, you may find yourself waiting for another twist to be revealed.

Copyright © 1997 The Seattle Times Company






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