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House of Games [DVD] [1900] [Multilingual] [Region 1]

1 disc
Region 1 USA/CA (info)

David Mamet's directorial debut finds him exploring his abiding interest in deception and inviting his audience to be prepared for endless twists and turns. The film is a character study of Dr. Margaret Ford (Lindsay Crouse), a psychiatrist and best-selling author specializing in addictive behavior. During a therapy session, she discovers that a patient owes a $25,000 gambling debt. When she becomes involved on her patient's behalf, she enters an underworld populated with fascinating characters. Dr. Ford is both strong and vulnerable, and Crouse exploits this ambiguity in a powerful central performance. Joe Mantegna is also a presence as underworld denizen Mike. The strong overall acting and well-crafted plot pleased critics and proved to be at the heart of Mamet's future filmmaking successes.
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Additional Info

Manufacturer Part Number (MPN): 1001277
Credits

Lindsay Crouse, Lindsay Ann Crouse, Joe Mantegna, Lilia Skala, Mike Nussbaum
Critic Reviews

"...Entertaining, deadpan, seriocomic melodrama....Mamet's screenplay builds much like a whopping good poker game..."
New York Times
Included in the New York Times "10 Best Films of 1987"
New York Times
"...Writer David Mamet's first trip behind the camera as director is entertaining good fun, an American film noir with Hitchcockian touches..."
Variety
"...A real curve ball....Mamet has elevated the dialogue to the foreground....GAMES is smart..."
Film Comment
"...Coldly absorbing....Mamet gives us the plot in crisp layers....[The] dialogue -- subtly rhythmed, pungent, terrifically well written -- carries the movie..."
Los Angeles Times
"...Mamet's dialogue starts with the plain red bricks of reality, and mortars them into walls that are slightly askew..."
Chicago Sun-Times
"With a parlor-trick plot and neon-lit cinematography right out of Edward Hopper's NIGHTHAWKS, GAMES is a con within a con within a con." -- Grade: A-
Entertainment Weekly