Republished from the show notes of my other site, Fuds on Film.
The first feature Mamet wrote and directed sees him start down a path he’ll only infrequently stray from, as Lindsay Crouse’s psychiatrist Dr. Margaret Ford attempts to straighten out a patient’s gambling debt with Joe Mantegna’s hustler Mike Mancuso only to find herself drawn into his world of con artistry.
Intrigued by the personalities and schemes of Mike and his crew, she soon finds herself romantically attached to Mike and is seemingly accidentally included in part of one of the gang’s hustles, although if you have any familiarity with Mamet’s work you’ll probably already have figured out that there more to this than there would initially seem.
Proving himself to be an iconoclast even from the outset of his career, Mamet attempts a daring gambit for the first ten to fifteen minutes of the film, casting only people who exhibit no acting capability whatsoever. Not all that big of a deal in the case of the good doctor’s patients, but unfortunately this applies to Lindsay Crouse as well. Initially I supposed the stiff formality was just part of the characterisation but to be honest she never really loosens up apart, arguably, from the last scenes, which makes her a difficult character to care about. I’d expect better from an Oscar nominated supporting actress.
By comparison Joe Mantegna is amazing, although only by comparison. It’s a perfectly serviceable turn from an actor I think by and large got much better as he got older, and you can apply much the same thinking to the supporting cast full of typically dependable names like Ricky Jay, William H. Macy, and J. T. Walsh that are all fine, but not much more than that.
There’s a couple of films on here that I’d describe as good scripts with middling direction, naturally this being the prime example. Mamet is of course best known for his approach to dialogue, and on paper it should work for House of Games, but the cast doesn’t make it sing the way others covered in the episode do.
All of which is not to say that House of Games is an unpleasant experience, and in a lot of ways it’s a confident and assured debut feature film that lays a lot of the groundwork for what Mamet goes on to become renowned for. It’s just not completely essential viewing, but, well, I’ve seen less worthy entrants in the Criterion Collection.