Review of House of Games (1987) by Al M — 05 Aug 2010

David Mamet's debut as a film director feels a bit stagey especially Lindsay Crouse's feature performance, which comes across as utterly devoid of life and passion. For a woman undergoing such extremes of anxiety, obsession, compulsion, rage, and depression, she never seems to deviate far from the same emotionless center.

It feels like a bad play, and, of course, that is where Mamet comes from and other of his films like Homicide have a similar style, but Linsay Crouse fails to perform in a way that makes her seem like anything more than a cold, emotionless robot.

The cast around soars higher in their performances, but it still always feels like we are watching an extremely elaborate play unfold, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Mamet will later better develop his cinematic sensibilities, but even this early film demonstrates his prowess as a director as he plunges us into a world of deceit, betrayal, and elaborate mind games within mind games.

Ultimately, House of Games revels in the fact that our personal narratives and beliefs about the world might ultimately be revealed to be nothing more than fictions or even lies.