Sunday, February 25, 2018

Review: Game Night

Image courtesy of Warner Bros.
"Game Night" mostly works because it wears its ridiculousness as a badge of honor and has no qualms about veering off into the far fetched. There are so many scenes in this film that would never play out in the actual world as they do, but it works and the audience plays along because the writing is - mostly - sharp and the cast willing to embrace the film's preposterousness.

The picture kicks off with a scene during which its two leads - Max (Jason Bateman) and Annie (Rachel McAdams) - engage in what Roger Ebert once called a "meet cute." Both of them are highly competitive people who enjoy taking part in games, and meet during a game of bar trivia. Years later, they are happily married and hold weekly game nights with a group of friends - Kevin (Lamorne Morris) and his wife, Michelle (Kylie Bunburry), and a doofus named Ryan (Billy Magnussen), who gets some of the film's best lines.

Max and Annie are debating whether to have a child and, during an amusing early scene in the film, are told by their doctor that Max's rivalry with his older, cooler brother, Brooks (Kyle Chandler), is getting in the way of the couple conceiving. It just so happens that Brooks will be coming to town - and to one of Max and Annie's game nights - so everyone is on edge. And it's easy to see why as Brooks roars onto the scene in a muscle car and quickly captures everyone's attention, much to Max's chagrin.

One of the film's funnier subplots involves a creepy cop named Gary (Jesse Plemons) - a neighbor of Max and Annie who is now divorced from one of their friends - continuously attempting to get himself invited to game night. Most of Max and Annie's run-ins with Gary are outside of their homes, where he often stands stroking his small white dog and staring with a creepy intensity. The running joke involving Gary remains funny because it verges on being unsettling and a viewer is left wondering whether it will veer off into darker territory.

The comedy and story jumps into high gear after Brooks tells the group that he is signed them up for a role playing game in which one of them will be kidnapped and the rest of the group must figure out who snatched them. However, Brooks' own shady dealings catch up to him and he is actually kidnapped, while Max, Annie and their friends continue to think that they are still engaged in a game. At least for a while.

One of the elements that benefits "Game Night" is that each character - or pair - have their own distinctively humorous storyline. Annie and Max are the last to find out that they are in actual peril and a scene in which she has to remove a bullet from his arm left the audience with whom I saw the film screaming - although I'm not sure it was from laughter. Kevin and Michelle's drama stems from their having been together since they were teenagers and a slip of the tongue revealing that Michelle slept with someone else when they once temporarily broke up. The punchline to this particular plotline is especially funny.

Ryan is a moron and gets some of the film's best lines and he is paired with Sarah (Sharon Horgan), an Irish co-worker who is much smarter than he is. And, of course, Plemons is particularly funny as Gary. It's the type of bizarre performance that makes one appreciate the actor for being able to keep a straight face through it all.

"Game Night" is not a great comedy. It takes a somewhat gimmicky premise and rides it all the way. That being said, it's a fun movie and one that is completely divorced from realism. Hollywood comedies are, for the most part, a dime a dozen. It's a rare thing when one of them makes me laugh. This one did so heartily on at least several occasions.

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