Michael Douglas is back in his Gordon Gekko suit as a soulless banker, his life about to be sucked into a live action role play nightmare - the game of the title, a 'life-changing' experience bought for him as a birthday present.
Fincher's taking on a game himself, namely that of trying to outtwist Mamet's or Shaffer's best mindgame plots with decoys and false denouements. Unfortunately, the end result of too many plot twists can just be to leave you feeling battered and queasy. The script blithely disregards the implausibilities of the situations that it throws Douglas's character into, and so reduces the spectator's emotional involvement in his predicament. The game is all linear, where it should at least give out the illusion of being a sandbox.
To compound the error of judgement made here by Fincher, the protagonist chosen is such an ogre that a lot of delicate handling would be required to achieve his epiphany and make us care when it actually comes. What we get is bludgeoning instead.
I rarely condone remakes, but there was a promising starting premise here and it really was too young to die.
4/10
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