Keepin' It Unreal [Reviews: The Game and The Joneses]

Who can you trust? Are the people around you who they say they are, or are you surrounded by actors playing their part? I present two films that prove you don't need Matrix or Source Code high-tech wizardry to take a hammer to your perception of reality.

The Game - a David Fincher classic from 1997 - stars Michael Douglas as Nicholas, a successful, bored superbanker drawn into a mysterious real-life roleplaying game. The Game is often quoted as a precursor to Alternate Reality Gaming but this is misleading: unlike The Game's premise which is tailored to the individual, ARGs seek to draw groups of players together to cooperate in real life or online; also, unlike poor brain-frazzled Nicholas, ARG players (I generalize) like to be in on the joke. The Game re-writes the rules of reality every few scenes, upping the stakes each time.

Steve and Kate Jones (David Duchovny and Demi Moore) are The Joneses, the perfect new neighbours moving in next door with their two perfect kids: everyone they meet falls in love with the charm act. Thing is, they're actually a "stealth marketing unit" - four unrelated salespeople masquerading as a family, enticing jealous neighbours to buy into their consumer lifestyle. It's a great conspiracy theory, at most two steps away from real-world celebrity endorsement.

Cleverly, the Joneses' immediate neighbours are old-school beauty product salesfolk themselves: they are the past, defenceless and blown away by this new style of aggressive marketing. Duchovny's character, despite being a smoothly successful car salesman is new to stealth marketing and the masquerade takes its toll on all four "family" members even as the locals fall over themselves to get into ever-increasing debt. This is an intelligent film that asks the right questions of advertising: just how powerful is it? is it truly harmless? is it ethical? and, where is it going?

With A Bit Of A Mind Flip [Review: Source Code]

I'm really, really excited about Duncan Jones now. I was impressed by his soulful debut picture Moon. Source Code, to me, proves that he is more than a one-hit wonder and is capable of consistently intelligent filmmaking and I look forward to his next film.

I have to admit though, I thought the title was misused. Source Code to me suggests a way of re-writing the program underlying existence itself - as in the Matrix, or perhaps Greg Bear's novels where quantum reality turns out to have computational properties. Source Code here is just a cool codename for a time-travel project. The trailer was misleading too - speeding trains, running plus explosions in trailer language translates as action-thriller with superhuman stunts. While there is certainly action, it's on a much more human and believable level and the film is more of a postmodern whodunnit with (naturally) existential twists.

Jake Gyllenhall plays a soldier, Stevens, sent back in time into the mind of a passenger on a doomed train, in order to work out the identity of the bomber. He can't avert the crisis which has already happened but the hope is to stop a second, larger attack.

Stevens can be sent back repeatedly, replaying the scenario in different ways - but if this is another Groundhog Day it is a particularly viscious one in which Stevens dies violently at the end of each iteration. The plot also reminded me of a short-lived time travel series, Seven Days, which also featured an experimental team led by a paraplegic scientist (here played by Jeffrey Wright.)

Source Code's plot relies on a particular version of time travel theory and the scriptwriter understands the implications and paradoxes, something missing from Seven Days. It's well-written drama too: the exchanges between Gyllenhall trapped in his capsule between sorties, and his commander Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) are particularly emotional. While the film gives up some of its secrets slightly too easily, the overall plot develops in ways that are captivating and surprising.