GAME 6
Directed by: Michael Hoffman.
Produced by: Amy Robinson, Griffin Dunne, Leslie Urdang, Christina Weiss Lurie.
Written by: Don DeLillo.
Director of Photography: David M. Dunlap.
Edited by: Camilla Toniolo.
Music by: Yo La Tengo.
Released by: Kindred Media Group.
Country of Origin: USA. 87 minutes. Rated: R.
With: Michael Keaton, Griffin Dunne, Shalom Harlow, Bebe Neuwirth, Catherine O'Hara, Harris Yulin & Robert Downey Jr.

This first feature from writer Don DeLillo aims to transfer the same acerbic wit and lyrical surrealism found in many of his novels. From its brisk dialogue to the constant entrances-and-exits of characters, the experience is closer to a play. It just so happens that Game 6 is a day in the life of middle-aged playwright Nicky Rogan (Michael Keaton), whose new career-making play is opening on the same night as the now legendary game six of the 1986 World Series. A born Red Sox fan, Nicky's jitters are incited when the mid-life crisis he's been trying to shake off finally strikes on the same day: his daughter tells him his wife (Catherine O'Hara) has hired a "prominent divorce lawyer," his lead actor (Harris Yulin) has a parasite in his head that causes him to forget his lines, while Nicky’s aging father has slowly begun to slip away from him. But looming over everything else is the Broadway theatre critic Steven Schwimmer (another delectably eccentric role by Robert Downey Jr.), a man so hated for his career-shattering reviews that he must go to the theatre armed and in disguise.

Director Michael Hoffman aptly centralizes the film on the foibles and fears of Nicky coming to doubts with everything in his life – not at all unlike David Bell in DeLillo's novel Americana. As the city takes on an increasingly eerie, foreboding air, Nicky somehow decides to take the biggest bet of his life – if the team that has consistently disappointed him throughout his life can finally beat its losing streak, than perhaps he, too, can beat his downward spiral. Once inside the bar to see the game, the saintly black female cab driver winks at Nicky and tells him to have "faith in the team," marking Nicky’s spiritual transformation as well as the film’s severely whimsical turn. Though the film remains consistently entertaining and succinct, the feeling that it makes a bigger deal of a rather banal series of events persists. Michael Keaton is more alive in this role than he has been for a long, long time, but his over-the-top performance makes the film a bit of an overly intense one-man show, but one with a smart, fresh script and a supporting cast of veteran actors who are a pleasure to watch. However, Game 6’s philosophical musings lack believability – a real problem for a story with such emphasis on the matters of the heart. Perhaps next time DeLillo won't wrap things up with a sappy, happy ending. Marie Iida
March 11, 2006