But underneath there is a more subtle message critical of the greed and the excess of the 80s. The movie's internal logic is built around the fact that his life is very lame and predictable and he gets propelled into these action-movie set piece tropes. On the surface, the movie is very "nineties ennui" where it throws a business exec in suit and a briefcase in an action movie. Which culminates at the end of the movie: he is a broken man, which leads him to suicide. First he loses on his business deal, then his money/fortune, then his brother. Returning to the escalation of tension, it works that way also because the plot destroys Nicholas Van Orton's life in an escalating fashion. You can see the veneer of civilization peel off and you're left with the unkempt hair Douglas: the most dangerous variant.
And in the Game you can see that kind of transformation on-screen. He can play the everyman gumshoe or the stonyhearted investment banker. There is something to 90s Douglas that is frankly mesmerizing, because he offer such a large palette of characters. He basically plays Gordon Gekko again, with the self-important attitude but also the effortless charm. Michael Douglas gives an excellent performance and it's just a joy to watch. But it is competent enough to let the talent shine. This tension escalates not really by anyone's actions but by design. Structurally the movie may not be the most elegant. Even in the third act, where there is maybe one switcheroo too many you get that escalating tension that keeps you engaged. The movie keeps the tension up throughout by jumping around whether the Game is real or not. I love this movie because it is a great mind-bending trick.
But it works for the audience and as such it works as a movie. With a rewatch there are some little details that stand out and you realize easily none of this would work for real. In The Game, Michael Douglas' character has basically a feature film inserted in his life. It was really the decade where TV and movies discovered the awesome power these new images had, and trying to reconcile their own moral hazard (spoiler alert: they did not). It sits right between The Truman Show and The Matrix as these 90's weird deconstructions of reality and sci-fi with a hint of social commentary on media.
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