Movie Review – The Game – a psychological thriller if there ever was one

Movie Review

The Game

I am writing this literally minutes after finishing this film, so be prepared for a post-movie spiel of confusion, amazement and pure appreciation for the amount of work that went into this movie.

First off, let me introduce it!

Successful San Francisco tycoon and control freak Nicholas Van Orton (Michael Douglas) approaches his forty-eighth birthday with some trepidation. For it was at this age that his father fell from his mansion roof and died. Nicholas receives an introduction to Consumer Recreation Services from his younger brother, Conrad (Sean Penn), and is informed that he is now playing 'The Game'. Nicholas soon finds himself losing control and threatened with the loss of not just his company and fortune but also his life.

Amazon UK

(Whenever I try to get a US Amazon link for a film, it starts trying to inform me about region codes and whatnot, so I figured I'll just let you look it up yourself from the UK link.)

My Review

Whenever I watch or read a psychological thriller, or a mystery, I am always amazed at how the writer managed to make everything work. There are so many little details, and somehow they all make sense in the end, winding together. It's truly a wonder.

If you're like me, maybe you thought of a specific mind game when you read the title of the movie. If so, you lost, sorry. Don't worry, I did too! If you have no idea what I'm talking about, maybe do a little Googling.

So, Nicholas is rich, powerful, and a control freak. Stereotypical rich guy. His younger brother, Conrad, is the type of guy who you are never quite sure if they are on drugs or not. When he hands Nicholas his birthday present Nicholas certainly questions whether he has taken anything. 

Nicholas' birthday present is his entrance to The Game. With no information about what this entails, and no one willing to tell him anything, his curiosity (and mine) is piqued. After going through hours of psychological analysis, and both mental and physical examinations, The Game begins.

If there was ever a film I would call 'psychological' it's this one. The Game makes Nicholas a paranoid mess, and I wasn't much better. I was leaning forward in my seat at times, wishing I could tell Nicholas not to trust that person, or not to go down there. They always seem to be watching, and their goal isn't clear. Do they simply want to play a game? Or is the purpose of The Game much more sinister? This is the sort of film that has you flipping back and forth between explanations, trying to understand how that thing just happened, or how that makes sense. Even after finishing it, my mind is still reeling.

The wonderful thing about this film, is that it didn't just make Nicholas paranoid – it made me paranoid for him. I felt like anything could happen at any moment, like Nicholas simply wasn't safe at any times and that he needed to be more careful than he was being. I really got into this movie, and that was why I liked it so much.

Sometimes, when I find a movie like this, the kind when you have to have seen the whole film to understand it, I get a great desire to get people I know to watch it with me, just so I can see the confusion on their face as I grin with my superior knowledge. I don't know if that says something about me. If it does, it's probably not good.

Okay, I'm done!

There are probably a lot of psychological thrillers that are much better than this one, but I haven't come across them yet. I am the type of person who doesn't believe something until they see it (I know, these types of people are annoying. Sorry.) and until I see a better psychological thriller, this one is at the top of my list! (On the Movie List, though, it's at number 50. Yay, 50 movies on my list!)

Did you even read that post? Do you know what the Movie List is?

Probably not. No one reads this far anyway.

Bye!