Gripping cinema.

David Fincher does an excellent job in keeping this suspenseful and exhilarating.

For those of us who were unutterably confronted and disturbed by David Fincher`s Seven, his next film was something to anticipate; well, it`s arrived...it`s The Game, starring Michael Douglas as Nicholas Van Orten, an investment banker, an elder son who inherited the running of the family business - but the silver spoon is tarnished; at a young age Nicholas witnessed his father`s suicide at exactly the age Nicholas is now - 48. His marriage to a good woman is over, but he`s rich and he`s very much in control of his rather sterile life On his birthday, his younger brother Conrad - Sean Penn - arranges lunch and a present.

Out of curiosity, Nicholas approaches Consumer Recreation Services, and much against his instincts undergoes their psychological profiling so the game can be tailored to his exact needs. Dangerous times lie ahead for Nicholas, because it`s a game that involves loss of control, loss of ego, loss of assets and potentially loss of life; and it`s a game you can`t get out of. One of the key players in the game is a woman called Christine - Deborah Kara Unger - is she for or against him?

David Fincher knows how to create the sort of nightmare vision experienced by our hero - the film has a cold, almost monochromatic look, to match Nicholas` psyche. Michael Douglas is actually excellent in the central role; we get a real sense of a man who refuses to acknowledge his powerlessness, even as events are overwhelming him. The film was written by John Brancato and Michael Ferris who wrote The Net - this movie is much more thrilling, and yet some of the elements that resonate through the film are not developed satisfactorily; it`s a bit long for its own good and the ending comes as a bit of a let-down - but it`s still pretty gripping cinema.