Game Night: Suburban Comedy Boasts Intense Action and Sly Humour

In John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein’s comedy, Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams star as Max and Annie, a married couple who love that oft-derided signal of boring middle-age: game nights. Lovers of competitive bouts of charades and monopoly, their safe routine is interrupted when Gary’s wildcard brother, Brooks, decides to up the ante with a murder mystery party. Unfortunately, on the night, Brooks is really kidnapped – can Max, Annie and their friends figure out that this is not a game, and navigate a world of mobsters, fight clubs and espionage to save him?

This high-concept comedy could have been mediocrity embodied, but it excels in two ways. It sought out an R-rating, so the film noir-inspired action is surprisingly intense – but the casting is also pitch-perfect, elevating the comedic punches.

Jason Bateman is his usual delightfully sardonic self, while Jesse Plemons is shiver-inducingly creepy as Max and Annie’s neighbour; a divorced cop who speaks of his loneliness with the eerie calmness of Norman Bates. Sharon Horgan is fantastic if underused as a bemused newcomer to the group, but it’s Rachel McAdams who proves a scene-stealing delight, her Good Suburban Girl schtick perfectly juxtaposed with the increasingly extreme situations she finds herself in.

As she tries to extract a bullet from her husband’s arm, she sympathetically winces “that smarts, huh?” like a mom covering a small child’s boo-boo. It’s one of many tiny, uproarious details that perfectly capture the chasm between cool-looking action movie tropes, and the awkward incredulity most of us would express in the face of danger.

This gap is further emphasised through the action, where bad guys don’t get knocked unconscious as easily as they do in the movies, nor do glass tables shatter on cue. Sly and self-aware, these nods to movie clichés elevate some of the more basic, predictable sequences.
Too many nonsensical twists are indulged towards the end, needlessly bringing the zippy pace to a grinding halt. But overall, Game Night is a solid win.