Game Night (2018)

★★★
Jason Bateman has always been a good comedic actor. I remember watching him on the sitcom The Hogan Family, where his comic timing and delivery were put to good use. He also appeared on Arrested Development, but would his knack for comedy translate to the big screen? Early on he seemed like an actor who would work primarily and prolifically on television. In the mid-2000s he sneaked up on movie audiences and displayed his strengths to a wider viewership. His bit role in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story paved the way, and supporting roles in Juno and Hancock showed that he could make the transition to theaters (notwithstanding his early failed appearance in 1987’s Teen Wolf Too).

Like Vince Vaughn, Bateman has settled into a lucrative and rewarding career track. The Horrible Bosses series allowed him to carry a movie, and now comes Game Night, in which Bateman gets another opportunity to exhibit his comedic talents. It takes place over a long night of hilarious misadventures, like Harold and Kumar’s quest to visit White Castle. Bateman and his co-stars are up to the task, delivering witty dialogue and snappy one-liners over the course of the running time.

Bateman stars as Max Davis, a lover of board games who meets his perfect match in Annie (Rachel McAdams). They get married and every week they invite their friends over to their home for game night. Neighbor Gary (Jesse Plemons) very casually hints that he is interested in being invited, but the Davises find him too creepy. During one game night, Ryan (Billy Magnussen) and the Sterlings (Lamorne Morris and Kylie Bunbury) come over to engage in another routine outing. Max’s brother, Brooks (Kyle Chandler), shows up and immediately upstages the whole event. Brooks, who is far more successful than Max, invites everybody to his house the following week to play a game unlike any other. It is a kidnapping mystery, and the winner will get a very expensive prize. The following week everybody shows up as expected. Two men subsequently break into the home to beat and kidnap Brooks.

The game is underway, or so the participants think. Brooks is actually in trouble with a Bulgarian gangster. The rest of the night is filled with misunderstandings, hilarious plot twists and unexpected revelations. Max and his friends now must solve a real mystery. The reason this movie works so well is that it never loses its momentum. Nearly every scene is some sort of set piece to set up a gag, whether visual or spoken. In between are lighter gags to ensure the audience never loses interest. The plot thickens, and through all this Bateman maintains an incredulous yet focused composure, veering back and forth between getting serious and acknowledging the absurdity of the whole affair.

Game Night finds the right balance between the serious elements of the story and the comedy used to surround them. Our familiarity with Bateman helps elevate the material. He has a certain way of performing that shows that he isn’t ignorant about his situation. His style contrasts with Chevy Chase in the ‘80s. Chase was good in his own right and flourished with the right script, but one of the main criticisms of Chase was that his characters didn’t always fully grasp the seriousness of their situations. (The Fletch movies were more a showcase for Chase’s delivery of one-liners than his ability to play an investigator.) That is not the case here. Bateman is gold, and Game Night gives him the opportunity to occupy this story with only slight detachment. He gets it. So do his co-stars. That’s why Game Night works.

© 2018 Silver Screen Reviews