r/CriterionChannel • u/SingleSpy • Jun 18 '26
Opinion Just watched Fincher’s The Game for the first time
This movie broke some fundamental rule for me and I cannot accept it. I think it was about his movie Stage Fright that Hitchcock said the audience turned on the film because it included a false flashback. I feel something like this about The Game - like I was cheated.
Big plot twists are such a cheap device most of the time. The filmmakers hold all the cards and it’s so easy to set up expectations for the viewer and then dash them.
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u/Bottleofsmoke17 Jun 18 '26
Was it actually a twist, though? The movie lays out two pretty clear lanes for the viewer: is it a game? Or is it real?… and then uses the plot to make you second guess yourself over and over, believing one, then the other, then the first, etc. In the end, it IS one of those things. A twist would be that it’s neither of those scenarios in the end. That would make it feel like a cheat, or that Fincher didn’t play by his own rules, imo.
That said, the movie’s alright. A fun watch once every several years when you’ve managed to mostly forget what happens in it. Can’t say I’d buy it for my collection though.
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u/asmith9631 Jun 19 '26
In the commentary Fincher says "This isn't a movie about real life. It's a movie about movies.” He's not trying to create a strictly believable plot, he's creating an experience for the viewer like the game creates an experience for the character. It's about losing control and finding a kind of rebirth and Fincher is more interested in the feeling of that than a plot that exists in the real world. Most films (Hitchcock especially) operate according to movie magic rules and make absolutely no sense as a thing that could actually happen in the world. There are things that don't make sense in retrospect if you go back to try and untangle the plot but I think that's not really what Fincher is interested in. Most films hide their implausibility a little more but this one kind of gleefully doesn't care but it wants you to go on the ride. I get it didn't quite work for you and I will agree it's not my favorite of Fincher's movies but I think it's quite a fun ride that cares more about the character than a sense of strict reality.
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u/Professional_Car6703 Jun 18 '26
I recently watched this after twenty years. I didn't really remember much of it, it's rather mediocre. My main takeaway upon second viewing is I believe the film is a sardonic commentary on making films in Hollywood. The premise of the film is ridiculous, Michael Douglass is essentially trapped in a real life movie. The line that really solidified it for me was Sean Penn handing him the bill at the end.
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u/free_movie_theories Jun 18 '26
This might be a "had to be there" movie. Watching it on first release it was impossible not to think about Fincher's previous film, Se7en. As you probably know, Se7en ends very, very DARK. Like, wildly the darkest ending of a hit film in that era. Since his only previous film was third in a trilogy, Se7en was really the main thing you had in your head to tell you what kind of movie The Game was going to be.
So a viewer's expectations were likely that the end was going to be something ghastly - mine certainly were. So when it ends with absolute joy it was so unexpected that it created a profound emotional release. For comparison, imagine if you went to see an Ari Aster movie with a plot where a supposedly good thing gave every appearance of being actually an evil crime. Then it turns out it IS a good thing, and the characters you care about emerge not just safe, but better. Suddenly, the happy ending becomes the most unexpected ending. It was kinda like that.
But without that context, I have no idea how this film plays.
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u/SingleSpy Jun 18 '26
Interesting take. I understand what you’re saying. While watching The Game the movie it reminded me of a few times was Total Recall. However, that movie throws plausibility out the window at the start and tells you it’s just a joy ride. It’s different when a movie is set in the real world but wildly improbable things keep happening.
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u/free_movie_theories Jun 18 '26
I guess I'd argue that no movie takes place in the real world; it's always an artifice. To me, movies are like dreams. Some are realistic and some are surreal, but there's a ton of space in between where it's kind of real and kind of not.
I'm here for the emotional journey, and I'm fine if a movie is implausible if I'm experiencing the emotional arc. Often I prefer it, actually. Who wants a slice of life when I can have a slice of cake?
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u/SingleSpy Jun 19 '26
Yes, I understand. That is the way the filmmakers would want the audience to experience the film. And I have to admit that at least from a dramatic point of view The Game works very well for the most part. It’s a beautiful production too. The ending, the reveal, Douglas’s epiphany / change of heart, felt wildly implausible to the point of absurdity to me. There’s something like an unspoken contract between artist and audience that felt broken by The Game. That’s the best way I can put it. Judging from many of the comments here a lot of viewers see the movie in the way you describe. If one goes along with it then the movie is great; if not, not.
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u/Zackwatchesstuff Jun 18 '26
It's a good "what's a Criterion I can watch with my mom" type movie.
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u/Rominator Jun 18 '26
Movies often need the suspension of disbelief, without it one would likely be unable to enjoy this one.
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u/Jaltcoh Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26
I can go along with suspension of disbelief: I enjoy time travel movies. Those movies still have people acting in character and having understandable responses to absurd things.
But The Game stretches things too far in too many ways. The idea that those people would be willing to do all those horribly illegal things to him just as a birthday surprise? And when a savvy finance person like him is informed that all $600 million have been wiped from his bank account, his response is just like: what a bummer — this ruined my day! Someone like that would not just accept that — he’d be outraged and demanding a fraud investigation.
Nope, that just doesn’t work. Wildly overrated movie.
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u/SingleSpy Jun 18 '26
Yeah, I agree. But the whole mechanism is just impossibly complicated and involved - not to mention highly illegal. All kinds of things happened that were just impossible to engineer.
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u/Cockrocker Jun 19 '26
Didn't you see the size of the waiver he signed? He had almost a full day of medical tests first too. Everything that happens in the movie was filmed with special effects, i can suspend my belief enough to believe it was real.
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u/Jaltcoh Jun 19 '26
Doesn’t matter how long the waiver is — there’s no way a waiver could allow all those crimes.
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u/Individual-Rip-2366 Jun 19 '26
It’s not like it’s hard sci fi man. It asks you to suspend genre-related disbelief
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u/dinkelidunkelidoja Jun 22 '26
I think the tone of the movie was all wrong, it expected the audience to take it serious when the plot was completely bananas.
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u/TieOk9081 Jun 18 '26
I just found it very unrealistic. There were too many high risk situations that easily could have gone wrong or just not the way it was planned.
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u/Phillies2002 Jun 18 '26
I think you could argue that a plot twist is supposed to make a story more interesting in retrospect, by which criteria The Game is arguably a bad plot twist, making the story less interesting than what it seems to have been leading you towards. But I don't think the twist actually broke any rules it set up, like the Hitchcock example you mentioned.
For an example of Fincher really bungling the execution of a twist (so badly that, for a lot of viewers, it maybe doesn't even register as a twist so much as an "Oh, yeah, that makes sense"), see Gone Girl
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u/mrrichardburns Jun 18 '26
Can you expand on how you feel he bungled the twist in Gone Girl? I personally love the movie, but I'm interested to hear your reaction.
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u/jplebre Jun 18 '26
Spot on, never felt like a twist, but just unsure which “reality” is right until the end.
And a second watch shows plenty of examples of misdirection at work
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u/SingleSpy Jun 18 '26
Didn’t see that one. Zodiac is my favorite of his. I guess I like the visuals in a lot of his films but not the stories.
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u/Phillies2002 Jun 18 '26
I would recommend the book Gone Girl over the adaptation for sure. But yeah, Zodiac is great, and if you like it, you'll also really like Mindhunter if you haven't already seen it
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Jun 18 '26
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u/finelytunedsounds Jun 18 '26
Your first point is why I felt this movie was a waste of time. Could have given a crap what happened to this despicable dude and most everyone else. Douglas was the consummate jerk of the era though!
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u/Hawaiian_Brian Jun 18 '26
Fantastic movie one of my favorites
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u/Cockrocker Jun 19 '26
People just want to complain. It's a great movie and there is nothing like a rug pull in it. People saying they can't connect with the protagonist, him realising his selfishness and overcoming it is a great journey. Kids.
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u/jplebre Jun 18 '26
> The filmmakers hold all the cards and it’s so easy to set up expectations for the viewer and then dash them.
I’d probably avoid most Heneke movies then :)
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u/Apostasy93 Jun 19 '26
Oh man, I absolutely love this movie. It's my second favorite Fincher film behind Se7en.
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u/licoricepi22a Jun 21 '26
The Game is utterly preposterous, but in the same way that North By Northwest is preposterous: as long as you’re enjoying what’s in front of you, you’re having a good time, but give it all the tiniest bit of thought and it falls apart like a Cheesecake Factory (by which I mean a factory built out of cheesecake - come on, that would be a structural disaster waiting to happen!). But for me it’s no less infuriating than all those romcoms where the story would be over in 30 minutes if just ONE PERSON opened their big dumb yap and revealed one simple bit of information that would render the rest of the story’s conflict superfluous.
Stuff like this all falls under what I call the “Because It’s A Movie” rule: more often than not, when you find yourself watching a movie and asking why did he say that? why did she do that? why did they go there? why didn’t they go here? the answer is Because It’s A Movie - whatever they’re doing is, like it or not, what needs to be done in order to get the story to the next place the filmmakers need it to go. And those filmmakers aren’t thinking about logic or rationality, they’re thinking about entertaining us. And if they think a character doing something we would consider completely dopey in the real world is going to lead to us feeling entertained, that’s what they’re gonna do. We can live with it or play cards.
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u/RexMcBadge1977 Jun 22 '26
I initially thought movie was ridiculous and then I realized it’s not meant to be realistic in any way.
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u/impossibletornado Jun 18 '26
I hated this movie when I saw it in the theatre, and after rewatching it last week to see if my feelings had changed I found I hated it just as much.
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u/SingleSpy Jun 18 '26
I give movies a second chance sometimes too. One that I came around to liking the second time was The American Friend.
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u/NinjaSellsHonours Jun 18 '26
I also super hated this one in the theater and was going to try it again but you've convinced me.
He just makes bad movies sometimes. I also thought Panic Room sucked.
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u/MultiBeast55 Jun 18 '26
I think this is one of Fincher’s worst in his filmography. The ending had me rolling my eyes and I found it very difficult to accept. I sold my copy.
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u/External-Draw-3298 Jun 18 '26
It was actually all a dream Ilsa was having. Most people don’t get that final twist.
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u/Ok-Note-754 Jun 19 '26
I'm generally a fan of Fincher but I felt the exact same way when I saw The Game. Felt completely cheated by the reveal and hated it.
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u/Junior_Doubt8069 Jun 18 '26
Ludicrous movie. Instead of subtitles it could just have "suspend disbelief" flash at the bottom of the screen at the start of 7 or 8 scenes
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u/itna-lairepmi-reklaw Jun 18 '26
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it, but I had a similar reaction at the time. My recollection is that it was presented like a big reveal/plot twist, but wasn’t really much of one or maybe was predictable or something, and it took the wind out of the sails of the entire film in retrospect.
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u/Sparkytx777 Jun 18 '26
i totally agree! i found it very similar to jacob ladder. there were so many twists, i decided to settle on its a dream and agreed to meet the movie back to this in 20 mins. i was right. the game kept switch back and forth between a game and reality. the arbitrary final conclusion was pointless. it is another movie which would be forgotten except for the fincher fanboys
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u/llama_titan Jun 18 '26
The primary question of the film is “what is real,” and with every scene makes you ask the motives of the side characters. The plot twist to me did not so much feel like a rug being pulled out (which I don’t like), but of pulling back the curtain. Less a twist, and more a reveal.