Game Night

Rachel McAdams and Jason Bateman headline a cast of people who are deeply into games, and gather once a week to play. Any kind of games, with cards, on a board, charades … you name it. But this evening they are all being treated to a role-playing game.

There are actually companies who do things like this, where actors put you into a scenario whereby you have to work to solve a murder. I think this got started at resort hotels in places like the Catskills. Donald Westlake and his wife Abby were involved in writing some of them for the famous Mohonk Mountain House.

So an FBI agent bursts into their house, tells them they are in great danger, only to be followed by two thugs who assault him, knock him out, and make off with one of the guests. Ha ha ha! Okay, Mousketeers, let’s get to work! For the longest time they think it actually is a game, though you will suspect from the get-go that it’s real. And this is one of those that twist and turn so that you can never tell what is the real narrative, and I can’t reveal much more than that. It leads to some really good comic situations, and though I can’t say that it played 100% fair, it was close enough that I didn’t feel cheated or bamboozled, except for legitimate bamboozlement. We liked it.