9. “The Game” (1997)
A “Twilight Zone”-y thriller about a wealthy businessman (Michael Douglas) who is engaged in an elaborate, maybe nefarious role playing game by his delinquent brother (Sean Penn), “The Game” is probably Fincher’s most cool-for-coolness-sake pop outing, but also his most hollow. No matter how much Fincher wants to connect the material (written by the geniuses that gave us “Terminator 3”) to themes of loss, regret and legacy (since Douglas’ game begins on the anniversary of his father’s suicide), the movie is too slick and polished, unfolding within too rarefied and un-relatable an environment, to have any sort of resonance in the real world of messy human emotion. It’s a film that seems to be gaining a degree of retrospective rehabilitation, but Fincher fans though we are, that’s a trend we must eschew. Despite occasional glossy pleasures, it’s beneath Fincher to have lavished so much skill on a story so trite and yet so smug; not only does this film cheat you at every turn, but by its close it’s clear that the film’s biggest mark is not Douglas’ millionaire, but the audience who get zero return on whatever investment they may have mustered. Sure, there are plenty of twists and turns and some extremely weird flourishes (like the fact that a large section of the film’s last act takes place in Mexico), anchored by fine performances by Douglas and Penn (in a role written for Jodie Foster, hence his character’s name “Connie”). But the film is at best a trifle with Fincher hardly taxing the flashy boundaries of his music video days, possibly a little stifled by the resounding critical and commercial approval of “ Se7en.” It’s a gift wrapped box beneath a department store Christmas tree: the packaging is exquisite, but there’s nothing inside. Interestingly, Fincher recently mentioned that his wife urged him not to do “The Game,” and confessed “in hindsight, my wife was right. We didn’t figure out the third act…”
8. “Panic Room” (2002)
It’s probably not surprising that Fincher’s biggest hit since “Se7en” came with his least cerebral, most straightforward effort, the slick b-movie “Panic Room.” It should be noted that the film faced a major stumbling block when original star Nicole Kidman stepped aside when a knee injury sustained during the filming of “Moulin Rouge” sidelined her (though you can see some early footage with Kidman on the ridiculously stacked triple disc DVD edition of the film). Luckily, a pregnant Jodie Foster saved the day and was probably a better choice for to play a desperate mother who has to protect herself and her daughter when home invaders crash the posh Upper West Side home she’s just purchased. If the single-setting is pure Hitchcock, so is the Macguffin; a safe full of bearer bonds that are really of no consequence and just there to drive the plot. But as a launch pad for a display of digital virtuosity, it sets up some bravura set pieces (particularly the single-shot, triple-level break-and-enter sequence early in the film which made our list of Best Long Take Scenes), and some clever approaches that open up the static environment (possibly in a way that slightly works against the film’s themes of containment and claustrophobia, but that’s a debate for another time). Otherwise, the film relies to an unusual degree for Fincher on its performances and the actors deliver, particularly Foster, a very young Kristen Stewart and Dwight Yoakam as the delightfully deranged Raoul. Forest Whitaker is solid as the bad guy with a heart but Jared Leto is less convincing as the cocky mastermind. Almost inevitably, the film deflates in its third act, (a recurring problem area for Fincher) and while the nods to “Rear Window” and “The Killing” are nice, the closing shot of the film finds the sympathy that had been building somewhat dissipating. Still, it bears rewatching more than some others here, and feels like it hasn’t aged at all, except maybe the shot of Foster’s already ancient-looking Nokia phone.
