“The Game” (1997) Movie Review

Warning: Spoilers Ahead

“The Game” is a mystery thriller film released in 1997.

The plot is centered around merchant banker Nicholas Van Orton getting a strange birthday present from his perverse brother Conrad for his 48th birthday: an invitation for a ‘game’ by an organization called the Customer’s Recreation Service (CRS). Nicholas was a very wealthy businessman, however, he lived a life of loneliness and isolation. His ex-wife left him, his father committed suicide on his 48th birthday, and he lost contact with his younger brother Conrad for years until Conrad mysteriously turned up on Nicholas’s birthday.

With a promise that the game would “change his life forever”, Conrad left Nicholas with a voucher for the “game”. At first Nicholas was doubtful of Conrad’s gift, but one thing led to another and somehow Nicholas ended up participating in the “game”. The “game” itself was surrounded in mystery, from the moment Nicholas entered, he encountered events that made him experience all the things that he had never felt before. Such as losing all his wealth, being shot at, being abducted then trapped in a coffin, experiencing poverty, losing his brother, and jumping off a building. The ending was another great twist, with it being revealed that everything he had been through had always been part of the “game”.

This film has left me on the edge of my seat from the point where the actions really started to pick up until the very end. Although the film itself is quite lengthy, the plot definitely does not disappoint. This is one of the very few films that I’ve seen where I cannot predict the ending while watching it. There have to be at least 4 plot twists that fooled me into thinking one way then another, and I never saw the ending coming until it actually did. By the end of the film, I let out a breath that I didn’t know I was holding.

Rating: 7.4/10

Plot: 9/10 (great storyline, really original)
Acting: 8/10 (can’t say anything about Michael Douglas as a person but he’s an alright actor)
Directing: 7/10
Cinematography: 7/10
Soundtrack: 6/10