my friend let me borrow "the game" and i watched it while i was eating dinner. i have seen very few movies with sean penn. 1-2 at best. i dunno, there's just something about him i didn't like when i was a kid so i have never been eager to see a film with him in it. lately, i hear a lot of people say what a good actor he is. i didn't buy those comments because all of them came from old people who, quite frankly, have different tastes than i. also, they were referring to his role as a mentally challenged individual. and as they say, anyone can play a disabled person and instant acting credibility, it's a sure oscar, etc. so i thought, bleeding hearts like sean penn. michael douglas? well, what can you say. an angry white man who made big money on wall street but got into a family feud and a fatal attraction but still managed to get gator boots and a hot wife. i really don't know much about him other than his father was a gladiator.

as for the film, while the details of the company crs are unraveling and nick (douglas) is trying to learn what kind of games they create for people, it very much reminded me of oedipa maas in "the crying of lot 49". just as oedipa researches the alternative mail system and becomes part of another world, so does nick get deeper into crs. later on, another scene reminded me of a film one of my classmates made. hmm, polaroids have definitely been overused in films.

what is interesting about the game is towards the end, when one wonders when the game stops, what signifies the end of a game. however, there's nothing ambiguous about it. it's a very happy, hollywood ending. it would have made for a much more intriguing film had the viewer been left with a sense of wonder, if the viewer had to decide if the game had even ended at all. it would have been quite easy to leave nick in a state of paranoia at the film's close.