The Game Film Breakdown

The Game Film Breakdown



The game (Starring Michael Douglas and Sean Penn) is a film about a very successful investment banker called Nicolas Van Horton. Through Nicolas's success he has unfortunately been introduced to a lot of grief. He is almost absent from his ex-wife’s life and his younger brother Conrad (Sean Penn). He is almost in his own world that has quite a repetitive form. By this I mean every day to day activity that takes place in Nicolas's life is very dull and very over repetitive in a sense that he does these activities every single day in the same time frame. Overall Nicolas's life is very dull and does not have much of a meaning. The whole reason why Nicolas finds life so dull and meaningless throughout the film is mainly because he is haunted by the death of his father. He committed suicide on his birthday. In the film it is Nicolas’s birthday. He meets with his brother Conrad who gives him a gift voucher to a company called CRS (Consumer Recreational Services). In this scene Conrad explains that the company 'makes your life fun'. Nicolas later find out that his world has gone from bad to worse when he signs up for this 'game' and that is only the beginning.

The film definitely represents the genre thriller because there is a large amount of suspense and excitement throughout because the audience would want to understand why this is all happening to the protagonist (Nicolas Van Horton).

The Setting is very urban. This adds a big sense of insecurity from the audience’s perspective and adds a sense of anticipation but not so much that the audience know what is going to happen to the protagonist but that we know something will happen that will affect him throughout the story.

The investigation is always based around a puzzle or an enigma which in this case is CRS. Which again adds to the whole mystery side of the film.

In a thriller the hero (Nicolas Van Horton) is the only one who can reveal the truth and solve the enigma. Which in this case is shown quite well throughout the film because everyone is playing the game everyone he knows in the film is playing 'the game'.

Like the game all narrative will be solved by the end of the film. In the viewers perspective Nicolas finds out it really is just a game right at the end. He hints throughout the film that he knows it’s a game but not an actual game in the way it is presented in the end.

overall the game thoroughly relates to the conventions of a thriller. very good film.

Max Kelly