Expert: Troy Heinzman - 8/2/2004

Question
Okay...I have a good one for you!  My husband and I tuned into a movie one afternoon - missing the  first part of it - and were totally lost until the end of it!  We thought the whole thing was genuine and sincere - and it was a thriller with a speed demon pace.  This man's life was in danger; bad things were happening to him; his wife had left him (or something like that); close to the end, his brother supposedly fell off the top of the building and was killed - and, as this man had hit drop bottom and could take NO more and was about to jump off the building himself, the "actors" all get into place (barely making it before this man kills himself) and open up another part of the building (I am not remembering half of this correctly - I am sorry) and everyone rushes out to scream "Happy Birthday".  It seems it was this man's birthday and every year he and his brother try to outdo the other one - and they are so rich that they have to go WAY out to get a good effect!! No one had been killed and he didn't lose his business, etc. I mean...I was on the edge of my seat all the way through the portion of the movie I saw.  It was a really good show and we would like to see it from the very beginning.

I'm sorry - but I have no idea of even who played in it.  I think I was so shocked by the ending that I completely forgot.  Does that sound strange or what?  I just know that I have been looking for it ever since and haven't found a movie like it.  

Do you, by any chance, know of this movie?  I just found one on Netflix called "The Osterman Weekend" that sounds a bit like it but none of the actors ring a bell (I know them - but I can't really remember if they were the ones in it).
It seemed like a more recent picture than that, though.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

Answer
Hi Linda,

 Thanks for the question. I have good news for you. The movie you are looking for is the 1997 Mystery, "The Game", starring Michael Douglas and Sean Penn and directed by David Fincher. It is a fantastic movie and one of my personal favorites.

Troy