The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
The fun is afoot
‘Game Night’ keeps you guessing and, more importantly, laughing
More or less the comedy version of the 1997 David Fincher-directed drama “The Game” and more fun than a night of Charades with friends, “Game Night” blends a healthy serving of laughs with a half-decent mystery. ¶ A story of a group-participation mystery-theater game gone wrong, “Game Night” regularly asks its audience — as well as its characters — what is real and what isn’t? Is anyone ever actually in danger? ¶ (Probably, you think, but you’re not quite sure until the film’s final act, which is part of the fun.)
“Game Night,” co-directed by “Horrible Bosses” and “Spider-Man: Homecoming” writers John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, brings together a fun cast led by Jason Bateman, Rachel McAdams and Kyle Chandler.
We first meet Bateman’s Max and McAdams’ Annie when they meet — at a pub trivia night, where, incidentally, Max attempts to get the other team to knock back vodkas while he drinks water. Annie’s ultra-competitive, too, and they fall in love, the two becoming a force together — a duo not afraid to stretch the rules. (When an opponent objects to their forming an alliance in one game, Max states that it worked for Hitler and high-fives Annie. “You’re high-fiving Hitler,” the woman replies in disbelief.)
Their courtship culminates, appropriately, with an in-game proposal from Max during a game night with friends.
A few years later, the pair is struggling to conceive, and, perhaps, the stress that comes from Max’s competitive nature is to blame.
That nature dates back to his childhood relationship with his older and evenmore-competitive brother, Brooks (Kyle Chandler), who never would allow Max to win at anything.
It doesn’t help Max’s stress level that he — who, as one friend puts it, is “the Donnie Wahlberg to Brooks’ Mark” — is about to get a visit from his incredibly successful (and also taller) sibling.
Brooks is invited to the regular game night at Max and Annie’s, along with friends Kevin (Lamorne Morris of “New Girl”) and wife Michelle (Kylie Bunbury, “Pitch”) and Ryan (Billy Magnussen, “Bridge of Spies,” “American Crime Story”), who tends to introduce a new pretty but dimwitted girl he’s dating into the proceedings each time.
Specifically not invited, however, is odd next-door neighbor Gary (Jesse Plemons), who wears his police uniform long after work hours, goes outside carrying his fluffy white dog and has been even less enjoyable to be around since his ex left him.
(One of the movie’s funniest early scenes finds Gary catching Max and Annie just back from the grocery store and carrying bags clearly full of party snacks. When he asks if they’re hosting a game night that evening, they lie. And when Gary asks about the snacks, Max insists the store had a three-for-one special on Tostitos Scoops — a claim Gary calmly and awkwardly challenges, wondering aloud how chip maker Frito-Lay could make a profit with such a promotion.)
After that game night, Brooks — who didn’t remotely follow Max’s instructions for a stealth entering of the house to avoid tipping off Gary — asks everyone to a game night the following week at a swanky home he is renting while in town.
“Trust me,” Brooks promises, “this will be a game night to be remembered.” Well, he’s right. Promising a game in which professional actors will kidnap one of the guests, leaving the others to follow clues to find him or her, Brooks is soon attacked in the home by masked men. Thinking little of it, everyone else snacks on a delicious cheese in the living room. Brooks, meanwhile, is in the kitchen using a large knife to try to fend off his assailants.
Following Brooks’ kidnapping, a supposed FBI agent (Jeffrey Wright of “Westworld”) arrives to deliver a series of dossiers with clues about kidnappings in the area, but he, too, is attacked in front of the gang. They decide that must be part of the game, as well, and split into couple teams — Ryan’s partner this time being an older and smarter female coworker, Sarah (Sharon Horgan of “Catastrophe”), whom he brought along as a ringer — to try to find Brooks and win a nice prize for the effort.
The fun sprawls out from there, with each couple enjoying their own subplot. That belonging to Max and Annie is the best; at one point, it devolves into her trying to perform an amateur medical procedure on him. It’s a laugh-out-loudfunny sequence, to be sure.
You have to be impressed by the direction of Goldstein and Daley, who take a step forward after their surprisingly enjoyable “Vacation” in 2015. The movie is perfectly paced, and while gags work to varying degrees, none falls flat. However, an elaborate sequence when the crew tries to steal a valuable object from the home of a wealthy criminal (Danny Huston of “Wonder Woman”) isn’t executed all that convincingly.
It helps that Goldstein and Daley are working from a solid script by Mark Perez (“Accepted”), even if his story is just a tad too predictable at times and Max’s growing doubts about having a child feel forced to create tension with Annie.
Bateman (the “Horrible Bosses” films, “Arrested Development,” “Ozark”) brings his very familiar skill set to Max, making the character relatable and sympathetic despite the hyper-competitiveness. Likewise, McAdams (“Spotlight,” “Doctor Strange”) is, of course, charming as Annie, who can be frustrated by Max but clearly loves him deeply.
It’s too bad “Friday Night Lights” alums Chandler (“Manchester by the Sea,” “Bloodline”) and Plemons (“Black Mass,” TV’s “Fargo”) do not share more screen time, but it’s nice each gets to portray a character that is a far cry from the person he played on that show. Plemons is especially fun in “Game Night,” while Chandler nails the brash-big brother thing.
And “Game Night” is a rather fun night at the movies. But stay home and play Charades if you want.