David Fincher's The Game (1997) holds up beautifully, even though so many seem to consider Fight Club and Seven as his best (or best-remembered) movies. Criterion's recent Blu-ray and DVD editions bring an end to many collectors' long cries for a port of the excellent 1998 laserdisc.
The Game is a nested doll thriller. Various layers of truth and artifice wrapped around a pitch dark sense of humor. Michael Douglas plays super-rich, super-jerk investment banker Nicholas Van Orton, a man with a great deal of wealth but very little substance in his life.
His brother Conrad (Sean Penn) meets him for dinner one night and slips him a gift certificate for a company called Consumer Recreation Services. "Connie" won't tell him what "CRS" does exactly, but urges him to try them out, assuring a "life-changing" experience. Nick walks into the CRS offices, signs some contracts, and the weird, paranoia-inducing ride begins. That's as far as I think it's safe to recount plot details, but suffice to say that Nick has a hell of a comeuppance due to him from the first frames.
The father-son themes of not repeating the last generation's mistakes haunt the entire picture, and Douglas' performance here is truly the pinnacle of this phase in his career, post-Fatal Attraction and Wall Street, as rightly noted in the booklet by David Sterritt.
The significant bump up in video bitrate compared to the creaky old DVD is significant, since the visual palette is so consistently dark throughout, with everything creeping in and out of shadows, it would seem. The void of blackness that envelops San Francisco for most of the movie looks magnificent here, without any hint of artifacting or crushed blacks.
The great James Rebhorn
The extras are, as I mentioned above, a direct port of the laserdisc, but that only means that they're likely new to most reading this. The commentary offered over the feature, behind the scenes, and trailer is cut across comments from director David Fincher, Director of Photography Harris Savides, star Michael Douglas, screenwriters John Brancato and Michael Ferris, digital animation supervisor Richard “Dr.” Baily, production designer Jeffrey Beecroft, and visual effects supervisor Kevin Haug. I actually miss these "laserdisc-style" commentaries, since they go for the choice cuts of comments.
I'm sure it takes ten times as long to put one of these together, but they're so worth it. The disc also includes film-to-storyboard comparisons and an alternate ending. The essay by David Sterritt in the booklet is very well-written. Compared to the laserdisc, this new edition only lacks a short introduction from Stan Brakhage and a note from the director that was included in the slipcase. We'll live.
This is a Top Shelf Disc for a movie that rewards multiple viewings and demands inclusion alongside your other David Fincher movies on the shelf. If ever you are in need of a movie that will help reflect inwardly, clear your head, and recalibrate your priorities (while still having fun), this is a great pick.
