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FILM REVIEWS

The Game, to paraphrase Kevin Costner's line from JFK, is a mystery inside a riddle wrapped in an enigma. It's an overly complicated thriller about a man trapped in a role-playing game run by a mys- terious company of seemingly endless resources.

Remember Gordon Gekko, the ruthless, greedy villain that Michael Douglas played in Wall Street? He plundered companies, laid off workers and taught us that ''greed. . .is good.''

The Game has Douglas playing Nicholas Van Orton, a Gekko clone whose comeuppance is a game that only the obscenely rich can afford, a game that promises to ''provide what's missing'' from his sad, morose, joyless life.

His ex-junkie brother (Sean Penn) has bought him this birthday present. All Van Orton can get out of anyone who knows anything about this company are cryptic descriptions of what promises to be the experience of a lifetime.

After an endless opening act, showing us Van Orton's ugly, emotionless personality, The Game begins. There are spooky encounters with strangers, veiled references to his father's suicide (an event that has consumed Van Orton's life) and strange keys turn up.

Paranoia rises as he is trapped in a game that has become too real.

Is it just a game? Is it a means that a competitor is using to discredit Van Orton as a businessman? Is it a way for his brother, or indeed, the game company, to take Van Orton's money?

Or will Bobby Ewing step out of the shower and tell us it was all just a dream?

Director David Fincher (Seven) tosses his trademark shadowy, serenely paced suspense at us, ratcheting up the tension in small degrees, adding layers of depth to what is essentially a preposterous story. There's also a sterility to Van Orton's life that creeps from character to movie.

It takes forever for The Game to hit the fan, but in gradually and quietly raising the suspense, Fincher succeeds in completely involving the viewer in the developing nightmare that Van Orton finds himself in.

Fincher got fine performances from Douglas, Penn, veteran supporting player James Rebhorn (as a game-company representative) and former Baby Doll star Carroll Baker as a dour housekeeper. And these performances are helped by Fincher's unsettling direction and a smart, glib script by John Brancato and Michael Ferris.

It's far-fetched, in an entertaining sort of way. And the ending is a letdown and something of a cheat. But The Game is the sort of cerebral chiller thriller that the fall movie season is famous for: a smart, intricate tale that rewards the viewer who tunes in to its paranoia.

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