A cry in the night, a strangled laugh: The Game

I particularly like psychological thrillers. Regular thrillers have a restless pace, lots of action, and the main hero gets to thwart the plans of a villain. The villain usually is better equipped than the hero, so we are left in suspense about whether the hero has what it takes to win. But basically, it’s a story about some villainous scheme put in the hero’s way, and the hero’s wherewithal to overcome it.

The psychological thriller puts a little twist on things. There’s a bit more mystery and drama. The focus is less on the plot (plain thrillers) and more on the character. The focus is on the effects events have on the character’s mind, or how one character affects the mind of another. The hero has to resolve the conflicts in his own mind or the conflict caused by the effect one character’s mind has on another.

No movie does this better than The Game (1997), starring Michael Douglas as Nicholas Van Orton, a hardened investment banker who is given an enigmatic gift from his brother Conrad (Sean Penn). Van Orton’s soul has been estranged. He is an extremely rich business man living in a beautiful home, but he is divorced, alone, and traumatized by witnessing - as a child - his father plunge to his death off the roof of his home on his 48th birthday.

As it turns out, Van Orton is also just turning 48! For a birthday gift, Conrad gives his brother a gift: it’s a game. During one point of the movie, Van Orton talks with a ‘new member’ named Ted about ‘the game’:

Nicholas: So, you've played recently?
New Member Ted: Oh, about a year ago. I was working in Los Angeles.
Nicholas: I hear the London office is very good, too. It just sounds like a lot of fantasy, role-playing nonsense.
New Member Ted: [leans in] You wanna know what it is? What it's all about?
[Nicholas leans closer]
New Member Ted: John 9:25.
Nicholas: I... haven't been to Sunday school in a long time.
New Member Ted: 'Whereas once I was blind, now I can see.'
[rises]
New Member Ted: Good night, Nicholas. Best of luck.
Nicholas: Good night.

It’s a live action role-playing game from a company called Consumer Recreational Services (CRS). As Jim Feingold (a CRS representative) says: “The game is tailored specifically to each participant. Think of it as a great vacation, except you don't go to it, it comes to you.” The game fuses itself right into the intimacy of your very life. To qualify, you have to go through psychological tests and physicals. But he is told that his application has failed for unspecified reasons.

Somewhat disgruntled, Nicholas heads home to find a clown lying on the driveway in front of the entrance to his home in the same exact position his father was lying when he jumped off the roof! Without giving anything away, the clown has an implant which allows it to manipulate a news anchor on his television so that it actually talks to him, telling him his game has begun, a precarious scheme, with layers and layers of deception and intrigue. Just when he thinks he’s figured something out, the manifold becomes more complex.

The game pecks away and lays bear everything Nicholas holds dear, his material opulence, his wealth, his private insecurities, his past trauma, his lonely and secluded existence, his shell. The fortress he has built for himself is dismantled one brick at a time. He is brought to the bottom of the barrel in a premature burial in a crypt symbolizing his rebirth, bringing a whole new meaning to: “Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” His bank account is in shambles and the clothes on his back are tattered; he’s lost everything he has valued; his friends have turned their back on him and his lawyer has abandoned him.

We see that the chess match has whittled him down to talking to his ex-wife. His is able to make peace with her, a very moving confession. By the end of the movie, everything comes to a head and we finally get to “see the wizard”. On the roof of CRS’s skyscraper, he is pleaded with to realize that it was just a game. But he is desperate and wants answers. He still has a gun he found from his destroyed home, a gun not seemingly planted by CRS agents. I’ll stop there.

It was so interesting to see how The Game was designed to bring someone back to real living so that life can be enjoyed for what it is. Van Orton plays a snazzy, modernly cynical Scrooge with plot idiosyncrasies that would make Syriana (2005) blush. David Fincher, the director (also responsible for Se7en and Fight Club), said the film is about loss of control, about putting your greatest fears in front of your face and calling us to real life and what’s really important in life. The cinematographer purposively chose Godfather-type visuals where the surface is protective and rich, but lurking underneath is a sort of ominousness. Michael Douglas is awesome and one of my favorite actors. His is cold, angry, subtle, and shows a lot of finesse. It centers upon a simple question: can Van Orton be saved?