Review: Reindeer Games
"Are you Ashley?" Ashley (Charlize Theron) nods. "I'm Nick." That's the second mistake Rudy Duncan (Ben Affleck) makes. The first is falling for his prison mate's girl.
Rudy and Nick (James Frain) are just counting the days until the prison gates open and freedom is theirs. All Nick wants to do is go home, sleep in his own bed and eat his mom's cooking. Fate has other ideas: Nick is fatally stabbed and when Rudy leaves the penitentiary and spots the angelically beauteous Ashley, who has never seen Nick and who has only communicated with him through numerous passionate letters, he can't help himself.
What Rudy didn't figure on was Gabriel (Gary Sinise), Ashley's unhinged brother. Seems Nick used to work at a casino and hinted to Ashley that he knew where the real money was hidden. So Gabriel and his gang want to pull off a grand heist and they're counting on the hapless car thief Rudy to get them inside. Despite Rudy's constant confessions that he's not Nick, Gabriel refuses to believe him and a terrified Ashley, all in love with the sap, says he'll be killed if he doesn't come through for Gabriel.
Reindeer Games, as written by Ehren Kruger (who penned the more admirable Arlington Road) and directed by John Frankenheimer (whose films have ranged from The Manchurian Candidate to Ronin), attempts to bust the conventions of the B-grade noir. Frankenheimer pays homage to directors like Jacques Tourneur, Fritz Lang, Edgar C. Ulmer, Andre de Toth, Anthony Mann, and Robert Aldrich - most unsung masters who often elevated the pulp with their daring, often experimental stylistics. Frankenheimer grifts many of their techniques: exaggerated closeups and deep focus foreground shots. His direction has a workmanlike precision but Frankenheimer rarely creates any moments of genuine suspense.
Kruger loads his screenplay with enough twists and turns to dizzy the audience. Unfortunately, they're outweighed by the contrivances. Yet it's an admirable angle Kruger attempts - a screwball noir. When one views Reindeer Games from this perspective, the casting of Affleck makes more sense. Despite the tattooed, muscular biceps and stubble, Affleck is too much the jokey, boyish charmer to be convincing as a low-rent lowlife, mistaken identity notwithstanding. As the jester who has to pass as the white knight, however, Affleck shines. Scenes where he has to talk his way out of dying by pretending he knows how to decode the casino's security system display Affleck's strengths while more hardboiled moments reveal inadequate macho posturing.
Theron spends the first half of the film with eyes widened with tears and often crying out, "No!" Or, "Gabriel, stop!" She's allowed to come alive towards the end. It doesn't matter - Theron has enormous star wattage, she's eminently watchable.
Reindeer Games
Directed by: John Frankenheimer
Written by: Ehren Kruger
Starring: Ben Affleck, Gary Sinise, Charlize Theron, James Frain, Donal Logue, Isaac Hayes, Clarence Williams III
