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House of Games
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by Good Times Video
Sales Rank: 18016
Price: $7.95
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David Mamet's 1987 directorial debut was this mesmerizing study of control and seduction between two kinds of detached observers: a gambler who is also a con artist, and a psychotherapist who is also an emerging pop-psych guru in the book market. The latter (played by Lindsay Crouse) meets the former (Joe Mantegna) when one of her clients is driven to despair from his debts to the card shark. Mantegna's character agrees to drop the IOUs in exchange for Crouse's attention at the seedy House of Games in Seattle, a mecca for con men to talk shop and hustle unsuspecting customers. The shrink gets so caught up in the arcane rules and world view of her guide over subsequent days that she observes--with no false rapture--various stings in progress inside and outside the club. Mamet's story finally becomes a fascinating study of two people protecting and extending their respective cosmologies the way rival predators fight for the same piece of turf. The psychological challenge is compelling; so is the stylized dialogue, with its pattern of pauses and hiccups and humming meter. Mostly shooting at night, Mamet also gave Seattle a different look from previous filmmakers, turning its familiar puddles into concentrations of liquid neon and poisonous noir. <I>--Tom Keogh</I>
Viewer Reviews
"House of Games",David Mamet's cinematic debut,is supposed to be about the complexities of the human mind and relationships. Maggie (Lindsay Crouse),a psychologist,has a patient with a gambling problem (Mantegna) Instead of helping him give up his addiction, Maggie is swept in. He teaches her about card games (yawn) He's a player,of course. Maggie doesn't hate the player,she hates the game. Well,she hates that she loves it. They go to the House of Games in Seattle to watch it all unfold. Maggie is aroused by the sight of stings going on in the casino-- and soon she's aroused by Mantegna. A stomach-churning love scene unfolds between the Italian lug and his homely psychiatrist. Isn't that unethical? Not to mention worthy of brain bleach?
"House of Games" has a predictable ending when Maggie gets wind of the whole con game. It's a pretentious bore. As a viewer,you end up feeling played.
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