Reindeer Games

Details

After being imprisoned on a grand theft auto charge, Rudy Duncan and his cellmate Nick Cassidy are finally approaching the end of their sentences. During their time together Rudy has heard endless stories about Nick's romantic correspondence with Ashley, a woman he's never actually met but intends to see as soon as he's released.

Whilst Nick can't wait to finally meet Ashley, Rudy has rather more modest ambitions. He's determined to stay out of trouble, return home to his family and enjoy the simple pleasures he's been missing whilst behind bars - particularly a fresh cup of hot chocolate and a pecan pie.

Unfortunately, shortly before their release Nick is killed during a prison riot. Rudy eventually walks through the prison gates alone, only to spot Ashley waiting outside for the man she's spent months corresponding with. Having seen exactly what Nick had waiting for him, temptation gets the better of Rudy and he decides to introduce himself as Nick.

Initially, it appears to have been an excellent decision. Ashley is beautiful, the pair immediately hit it off and Rudy starts making up for some of the time he's spent behind bars. Unfortunately, his newly acquired identity comes with considerably more baggage than he anticipated.

Ashley's decidedly unpleasant brother Gabriel suddenly appears with a group of heavily armed associates. Gabriel believes that Nick's previous employment as a security guard at the Tomahawk Casino makes him the perfect inside man for a robbery he's planning.

Rudy desperately attempts to explain that he isn't Nick, but Gabriel isn't exactly the trusting type and assumes he's simply trying to avoid taking part. With little choice but to continue the deception, Rudy finds himself forced to provide information about a casino he's never actually worked in.

His only knowledge of the place comes from the stories Nick told him in prison, leaving Rudy desperately trying to remember enough details to convince Gabriel that he knows what he's talking about. One wrong answer could expose his deception and, judging by Gabriel and his friends, they're unlikely to respond with a polite apology and a lift home.

As Christmas approaches, Rudy becomes increasingly trapped between his false identity, Ashley, Gabriel and the planned robbery. Unfortunately for everybody involved, practically nobody appears to be telling the complete truth and the number of double-crosses is about to make Rudy wish he'd simply walked straight past Ashley and gone home for that hot chocolate.

Picture & Sound

With the majority of the film taking place either at night or in dark locations, the transfer provides a serious test for the DVD format. Fortunately, it passes with flying colours, producing a rich and detailed picture without any significant artifacting or outlining.

The film's snowy Michigan setting provides an interesting mixture of extremes. Bright exterior scenes contain plenty of white snow and overcast skies, whilst interiors and nighttime sequences frequently disappear into deep shadows. Both are handled well, with convincing black levels and a respectable amount of detail retained in the darker areas.

Colours are generally strong without appearing excessively saturated and flesh tones remain natural. With an above-average bitrate throughout the film, the transfer remains remarkably stable even during the more frantic action sequences involving smoke, gunfire and explosions.

For what is a relatively low-key thriller, it's an impressive picture and there's very little here to complain about.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is equally good, with some fine channel separation and clearly audible dialogue anchored firmly in the centre channel. The quieter scenes make good use of ambient effects, particularly the wind and weather surrounding the film's freezing winter locations.

Once the action kicks in there's considerably more activity, with gunfire, explosions and assorted destruction spreading across the soundstage. The surround channels become increasingly active during the casino robbery and there's enough low-frequency activity to give the subwoofer something worthwhile to do.

It's not quite demonstration material, but the soundtrack is lively when required and atmospheric when things calm down. Combined with the excellent picture, it's a very respectable presentation.

Menu & Extras

The original DVD release was virtually devoid of supplementary material, making this Director's Cut a considerably more welcome proposition. Alongside the extended version of the film we now get deleted material, a theatrical trailer, a behind-the-scenes featurette and an audio commentary from director John Frankenheimer.

The main attraction is obviously the Director's Cut itself, which restores footage removed from the theatrical release and extends the running time. Whether every additional moment was absolutely necessary is debatable, but it's always preferable to have the director's preferred version available, particularly when the original theatrical material is also represented amongst the extras.

Frankenheimer's commentary is reasonably informative and provides some useful background on the production. Given his considerable career behind the camera, it's interesting to hear his thoughts on what would unfortunately become one of his final films.

The brief Behind-the-Scenes Featurette is rather less exciting and contains the usual collection of cast members telling us how wonderful the director is. It's harmless enough, but hardly the sort of substantial documentary that's going to encourage repeated viewings.

A collection of scenes from the original theatrical cut and the theatrical trailer round things off. It's not an enormous supplementary package, but compared with the barren original release this Director's Cut is a considerable improvement and easily the version I'd choose.

Overall

Interestingly enough, the Region 2 edition of the film was renamed Deception, presumably because us European types would have seen the title Reindeer Games, assumed it was a cuddly Christmas animated special and subsequently ended up with some extremely shocked children asking lots of awkward questions.

Whatever you want to call it, I think this is a fantastic little thriller.

The basic setup is wonderfully simple. Rudy makes one stupid but entirely understandable decision after leaving prison: he sees the beautiful woman his dead cellmate has spent months talking about and decides to pretend to be him. Under normal circumstances the worst consequence might have been an extremely awkward conversation when Ashley eventually discovered the truth.

Unfortunately for Rudy, these aren't normal circumstances.

Ben Affleck makes Rudy sufficiently likeable that you're prepared to overlook the fact that virtually everything that happens to him is the result of his own stupidity. He knows assuming Nick's identity is a bad idea, does it anyway and then spends the remainder of the film desperately attempting to dig himself out of an increasingly deep hole.

Gary Sinise is particularly good as Gabriel. Sporting long hair and a permanently threatening expression, he's a considerable departure from some of Sinise's more sympathetic roles and gives the film a suitably unpredictable villain. Rudy never quite knows whether Gabriel believes him, and Gabriel never seems more than a few seconds away from deciding that shooting somebody might simplify matters.

Charlize Theron is equally effective as Ashley and it's easy to understand why Rudy makes his initial mistake. At first she appears to be the innocent party caught between Rudy and her rather unpleasant brother, although in a film this obsessed with deception it's probably wise not to take anybody entirely at face value.

And that's where Reindeer Games really earns its keep. There are so many double-crosses, false identities and hidden motives that at times you'll be left wondering just what the hell you've been watching. Just when you think you've worked out who is manipulating whom, another piece of information arrives and changes things again.

Admittedly, as the plot unfolds some of the twists become easier to predict and the screenplay occasionally stretches credibility to breaking point. If you stop and analyse every character's actions too carefully, there are probably several moments where the whole thing begins to wobble.

But I didn't particularly care.

John Frankenheimer keeps everything moving quickly enough that you're rarely given much opportunity to worry about whether the latest revelation makes perfect sense. The snowy locations give the film a suitably cold and miserable atmosphere, whilst the Christmas setting provides an amusing contrast with the violence and general unpleasantness surrounding Rudy.

The casino robbery itself is also great fun. By that point Rudy is attempting to bluff his way through a building he's never worked in, using little more than half-remembered stories from Nick to convince a group of armed criminals that he knows exactly what he's doing. Naturally, things don't go entirely according to plan.

There's also a pleasingly nasty streak running through the film. Nobody is particularly trustworthy, practically everybody has an ulterior motive and even the apparent victims may not be quite as innocent as they initially appear. It's the sort of film where taking anything at face value is usually a mistake.

The Director's Cut makes this particular DVD considerably more attractive than the original bare-bones release. The additional material isn't going to transform anybody's opinion of the film, but combined with the commentary and other extras it finally feels like a worthwhile DVD package rather than simply the movie dumped onto a disc.

Reindeer Games certainly isn't going to win any awards for plausibility and some viewers will probably roll their eyes as the final twists arrive. For me, though, it's a roller-coaster ride of superb entertainment with a great cast, an entertaining premise and enough double-dealing to keep things interesting right through to the end.

Under the radar? Definitely. Underrated? I think so.

Special features

• Director's Cut Commentary by Director John Frankenheimer
• Original Theatrical Cut Scenes
• Behind-the-Scenes Featurette
• Theatrical Trailer