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This year, director David Fincher earned his first best-director Oscar nod for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. But, like this year�s Oscar-winning director, Danny Boyle, Fincher has a much darker, grittier past, filled with edge-of-your-seat thrillers like Fight Club and 1997s The Game.
Michael Douglas stars as Nicolas Van Orton, a wealthy, cut-throat businessman who�s all but cut himself off from the outside world. On the day that Nicolas turns 48�the same age that his father had been when he killed himself�his rebellious little brother, Conrad (Sean Penn), arrives with an unusual birthday gift: a certificate for a mysterious, real-life game.
Despite his reservations, Nicolas agrees to give The Game a try. And after he fills out the forms and waivers and goes through the required psych evaluations and physicals, The Game begins. It starts out small: a leaking pen, a briefcase that won�t open. But, before long, Nicolas finds himself running for his life, caught up in scandal, and in danger of losing everything that�s important to him. The Game begins to spin wildly out of control, until he no longer knows what�s real and what�s just The Game�or whether it really is just a game.
Eerie and suspenseful, with a new and perplexing twist around every corner, Fincher�s The Game is a cinematic brain-teaser that builds gradually, eventually working its way up to a frantic, frenzied pace.
Once the story begins to pick up speed, you�ll find yourself playing along with Nicolas, trying to fit the pieces together to figure out what it all means. Is it real? Is it just a game? Or maybe it�s all just one big con. You won�t know for sure until that last breath-taking moment�because just when you think you�ve got it all figured out, Fincher throws in another hint to lead you off in a completely different direction. And although the story isn�t without its share of minor flaws and holes, you�ll be too captivated to notice (or, for that matter, care).
After making it through this pleasantly puzzling thriller, you�re sure to feel as if you�ve just completed a two-hour Sudoku marathon. The Game is certainly maddening. You might even say that it�s mentally exhausting. But it�s also wildly, wonderfully entertaining.
If you somehow managed to miss The Game, be sure to hunt down a copy of the DVD. Or, if it�s been a while since you last played The Game, it�s well worth playing again.
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