The Game

Directed by DAVID FINCHER

Starring MICHAEL DOUGLAS SEAN PENN DEBORAH KARA UNGER

1997

Released 27 JULY

Blu-ray

People often say of the Coen brothers that there is no consensus favourite when) would only serve to cloud the chilling intimations of its story about the absurd lengths one must go to humanise an investment banker. There’s no one on the planet better suited to the role of the cold and callous Nicholas Van Orton than Michael Douglas, as he is perhaps the physical paragon of the take-no-prisoners boardroom warrior. His estranged brother, Conrad (Sean Penn), pays him a visit on his birthday, and offers him a gift card for an experience provider named Consumer Recreation Services that he assures will be life-altering. With some trepidation, Nicholas decides to take the plunge and to say that his precisely managed and predictable corporate lifestyle is thrown into a cocked hat is something of an understatement. ’s greatness comes down to the fact that it offers immediate, intense pleasure via its exquisite craft, but it also exists as an open text that playfully repels easy decoding. Where some might see it as an excoriating take down of the corporate sector and its heartless players, others may find a beautiful metaphor about the power of cinema, or a commentary on the myth of destiny and time’s ability to undercut the best laid of plans.