The Game

3.00
    The Game
    1997

    Synopsis

    In honor of his birthday, San Francisco banker Nicholas Van Orton, a financial genius and a cold-hearted loner, receives an unusual present from his younger brother, Conrad: a gift certificate to play a unique kind of game. In nary a nanosecond, Nicholas finds himself consumed by a dangerous set of ever-changing rules, unable to distinguish where the charade ends and reality begins.

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    Cast

    • Michael DouglasNicholas Van Orton
    • Sean PennConrad Van Orton
    • Deborah Kara UngerChristine
    • James RebhornJim Feingold
    • Peter DonatSamuel Sutherland
    • Carroll BakerIlsa
    • Anna KatarinaElizabeth
    • Armin Mueller-StahlAnson Baer
    • Charles MartinetNicholas' Father
    • Scott Hunter McGuireYoung Nicholas

    Recommendations

    • 88

      Chicago Sun-Times

      The movie's thriller elements are given an additional gloss by the skill of the technical credits, and the wicked wit of the dialogue.
    • 83

      Entertainment Weekly

      An intensely exciting puzzle-gimmick thriller, the kind of movie that lets you know from the start that it's slyly aware of its own absurdity.
    • 80

      Washington Post

      It's formulaic, yet edgy. It's predictable, yet full of surprises. How far you get through this tall tale of a thriller before you give up and howl is a matter of personal taste.
    • 70

      Newsweek

      This is not a movie that can bear much postgame scrutiny. The minute you begin to question one element of the plot, gaping holes of logic appear throughout.
    • 70

      Variety

      The film itself is limited by the material's nature as a brainy exercise and by its narrow focus; individual response will depend upon how tantalized one is by puzzles and games, as well as upon how off-putting one finds the central character, who is center-stage throughout.
    • 60

      The A.V. Club

      It's a stylish, cleverly plotted, perpetually unpredictable film with another electric (albeit brief) performance from Penn. So why is it so unaffecting?
    • 60

      TV Guide Magazine

      It's a cut above the throng of mindless, purported thrillers in which explosions and gun battles replace even rudimentary story telling.
    • 50

      Dallas Observer

      In The Game, Fincher pulls back from the total gross-out but sustains a tone of aggravated anxiety. Hitchcock could have done this material and still made its perversities pleasurable.

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