2018 Film Review: Game Night (2018)

Directed by: John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein
Written by: Mark Perez
Starring: Jason Bateman, Rachel McAdams, Kyle Chandler
IMDb Link

Jason Bateman's always great but Rachel McAdams steals the show.

Game Night follows Max and Annie (Bateman and McAdams), a competitive couple who are trying and failing to have a baby, seemingly due to Max's stress over the return of his more successful brother Brooks (Chandler). Max and Annie hold game nights with their friends, and upon returning Brooks offers a more exciting game involving a staged kidnapping and a mystery. Things spiral out of control when Brooks taken by real kidnappers, leading to a lot of comedy through camaraderie and hijinks that also surfaces revelations about Brooks to Max.

The film is really very funny. The plot twists and untwists for comedic effect, playing for laughs by emphasising the elaborate nature of it all and the characters' inexperience, and contrasting their expectations with slaps of reality. An easy early example involves having Brooks' actual kidnapping turned up to eleven while Max and Annie and their friends take it in like a show while getting in to some cheese, completely unaware of the change in the situation. Annie is the best utilised of the characters here; she is completely unsure of what she's doing, but she takes to it all with gusto and quick if ultimately not always useful thinking that leads to some of the film's funniest moments, and her comedic chemistry with Max is perfectly timed. A clear highlight involves her having to get a bullet out of Max's arm, where it's clear that they just went as far as they could in extending every aspect of the comedy in the scene, from giving Max a squeaky chew toy to bite down on for the pain to the eventual reveal of yet another light twist. There's a certain humanity to it all as well; Annie is completely supportive and understanding of Max's issues and they stand by each other through it all, making the core of this film as wholesome as it is hilarious.

Unfortunately, the film's extension of its comedy leads to a lot that seems too much. The secondary characters get their own side arcs, but the comedy here does land as consistently and takes away focus from the main story, to sometimes incredible excess. There is a scene where the movie stops half-way through to jump in to an unnecessarily detailed side story; it seems like they wanted something to be going on visually, but the whole revelation of the story is taking place half-way through a plot-relevant moment, and doesn't really come up again later. It's ultimately wholesome, but messy and completely unneeded. This also goes for the main plot, which swiftly stretches in to Fast and Furious territory moments after it could've all been over. There's also some stylistic choices that seem to come out of nowhere, and mostly just come off as the filmmakers trying a few things out, such as consistent use of tilt-shift for establishing shots and an extravagant long take for a chase scene, both of which don't impede the film overall, but are still notable for how much they stand out.

The Short Version: Game Night is hilarious and pretty clever, if somewhat overstuffed. Rachel McAdams is an absolute delight, and the comedic twists and turns range from pleasant to riotous, but the film adds unnecessary story elements and a myriad of filming styles to extend the entire experience unnecessarily.

Rating: 7/10

Published February 25th, 2018