07-04-10 Game 6 (2005)

Seen: April 5th, 2007
Format: DVD
Rating: 8

Do you ever feels that there's a lot going on, but nothing really happening? Game 6 is just the opposite.

Not much really happens in this film. There's a few confrontations, a meal or two, a bunch of cab rides, a haircut and some shots fired ineptly. But there's a whole lot of things happening.

It's easy to write Game 6 off as a tired and blatant sports metaphor for life. It's easy to say the dialogue is trite and contrived. It's easy to say the some characters are one dimensional, simple devices and disposable. It's easy to say that it often takes the easy way out, or abandons trying altogether. All of this may be true. But none of it really matters.

Game 6 is ultimately about connecting. Specifically, it's about connecting by shared experience. All over this film, people are connected by the experiences they have shared. The experiences vary wildly. Past professions, passions, hopes, dreams. There are shared hard times, some shared good times. There are shared expectations, shared illusions. Even shared places for relieving ones self.

These connections are ultimately all that's important. It's the things that we share that ultimately make us a society, that ultimately make us human.

It's interesting that some characters share very little of actual substance, and these are the relationships that are the weakest, the least real, the least human. Many of these experiences are shared by characters who never meet, but the they align them in our minds. We can draw parallels between them, learn about who they are, and the story becomes richer.

The performances here are very good. There's a lot of strange stuff that happens, and the casting solves many believability issues by just putting the right actor in the right role.

The film moves slowly, things sharpen their focus over long periods. There's a lot of waiting, a lot of simple time passing. Conversations are sometimes random, sometimes cryptic, sometimes pointed. The story is plain and takes its time. Bruckheimer would have fits.

Perhaps I need to make more connections of my own, considering how the simple ones here impacted me. These connections made me feel hope, even in the moment of despair. Maybe that vicarious feeling will spill over, maybe not, but for the moment, I felt content and satisfied.

Ultimately, Game 6 is a big fat art film. High on ideas, metaphor and exposition and low on detail and consistency. It left a big fat smile on my face ... but I could have done without the cheesy voice over.

The Good: Everything's important

The Bad: Elliot's descent

The Ugly: Finding new ways to lose