The Game

Starring Michael Douglas just before he became fat and boring, this is David Fincher's forgotten masterpiece

Perhaps overlooked because it lacks the profundities of Fincher's earlier Seven or his later film Fight Club; The Game is still a masterful thriller full of twists and turns. 

Douglas plays Nicholas Van Orton, a hugely successful businessman who is only comfortable when he is fully in control.

When he receives an unexpected birthday gift from his brother Conrad (a mischievous Sean Penn) his well ordered life undergoes a radical transformation.

Sean Penn'a role was turned down by Jeff Bridges while Jodie Foster requested that the role be rewritten for a woman. That would have been interesting but Penn is perfect as Nicholas' brother as you're never quite sure whether he is trustworthy

The Game succeeds in placing us directly in the shoes of Van Orton and because we are as clueless to what's going on as he, we begin to sympathise with what at first appears to be a purely unlikeable character. Douglas must take some of the credit for this, his charisma and wry charm make Van Orton likeable when in another actors hands he would have been merely smug and arrogant. Indeed, if you look at roles such as Gordon Gekko in Wall Street it seems Douglas has mastered the loveable rogue.

The film messes with our expectations of not only what will happen within the film but what should happen in conventional narratives. Just as we think the movie is going in one direction, it veers of into another.

Recently released in a special edition DVD, we can see an alternative ending which is perhaps not as hopeful as the studio-approved one on show here. The downbeat mood of the original ending as Van Norton walks alone into the darkness seems better in keeping with the sombre mood of the rest of the film.

With David Fincher now a well recognised and accomplished director, particularly as Fight Club seems to appear in every top 100 movie list these days; the time is right to re-evaluate an equally dark masterpiece - The Game.