Starring Michael Douglas and Sean Penn Directed by David Fincher Rated R, with sex, violence and profanity Running time 128 minutes We give this film a rating of 5 out of 10

(Sept. 12, 1997) -- The ads tout originality, but in fact The Game mixes Jumanji with The Sting -- or any other film that pulls a few fast ones on the audience -- and shrewdly casts Michael Douglas as a first cousin to Wall Street's now-iconic Gordon Gecko. Original this thriller is not.

Neither is it particularly involving until the last stretch, when the action heats up and the story achieves some real momentum. Until then, watching The Game is something like working a jigsaw puzzle that, dozens of pieces in, fails to yield a hint of the big picture.

Douglas plays a tycoon who, on the eve of his 48th birthday, has pretty well shut himself off from anything as messy or potentially disruptive as a relationship or an emotion. Rigid and unsmiling, he shuttles between a generically cushy office and a mansion of similar appearance in his big, black BMW.

There's an airlessness to his chosen environments. It's almost as if he has been hermetically sealed off from the rest of the human race by his wealth, power and arrogance.

On the day he turns 48, the age at which his father committed suicide, Douglas is surprised at dinner by his wayward, elfin younger brother and complete opposite. Sean Penn plays the anti-tycoon, a quickie for Penn.

At dinner, Penn hands Douglas a business card that invites him to sign up for a mysterious game. Asked to describe it, Penn smiles menacingly and cites the gospel according to John: "I was blind and now I see." Not much help there.

Uncharacteristically, Douglas is intrigued. He calls the number on the card. Again uncharacteristically, he makes it through a full day of filling out questionnaires and taking psychological and endurance tests. The first bit of gamesmanship: He gets a call saying he failed the tests. Very funny.

As the game progresses, Douglas finds himself in situations that are increasingly dangerous -- both emotionally and physically. That's the Jumanji factor. Anyone who didn't see the Robin Williams movie, a dark fable for the family audience, probably won't have a clue about what's going on for most of the first hour of The Game.

At around midpoint, though, the film's general drift comes clear. There's that news of failing the test. There's the violation of his workplace and home. There's kinky sex -- and plenty of blackmail pictures to go with it. Clearly the unknown forces unleashed on Douglas' life are forcing him to face his worst fears and darkest desires.

When he learns he has lost all his money, even the hundreds of millions in his Swiss bank account, the movie finally kicks into high gear.

There's no denying the fascination of watching this proud, cold, tightly coiled tycoon go through experiences that literally scare the daylights out of him -- and the humanity back into him. In a scenario that careens all over the place, Douglas is steadiness itself. His performance is the movie's major source of continuity.

Though Penn has very little to do here, he's a striking presence in all his bits -- a kind of menacing pixie. Canadian actress Deborah Kara Unger, a veteran of recent films by the avant-gardist David Cronenberg and Lynch, does well as an eye-catching, chameleonlike character. Rangy James Rebhorn and the gifted German character actor Armin Mueller-Stahl have small but juicy roles.

Director David Fincher proved that darkness can be dazzling with Seven, but here the darks are murky as often as not. Despite the usual solid, credible effort from Douglas and some interesting touches from the others, The Game mounts a hard test of the viewer's patience -- and faith.