Recently, I went to a friend’s house to catch up, and we watched Game Night together. This is not a new movie, but it was the first time I’d seen it, and friends and family of mine who’d seen it before had been raving about it to me, so I was anxious to see it myself. Game Night is a comedy, I’d heard, with a sort of sarcastic but gentle sense of humor. As I sat down to watch it, I hoped that I hadn’t raised my expectations so high that the movie would be disappointing. It wasn’t.

Going into the movie, I was skeptical – I’d had a rough week and was in a bit of a sour mood. Game Night changed that. I laughed – really laughed – for the first time that week, and found myself rooting for the characters despite the mysterious nature of their predicament that takes the audience through a twisting maze, ultimately leading to the truth. With the perfect mix of action and comedy, the movie captures the audience’s interest from its fast-paced beginning to twist ending. One element in particular that stood out to me was that the film was able to carry a consistent and believable plot while maintaining the comedic and action-packed aspects that made it so uniquely captivating. Throughout the movie, characters and relationships are developed and explored in a way that makes them tangible to an audience of teenagers and adults alike. The dramatic irony around which much of the plot is based is partly what makes the characters so relatable and trustworthy, but the multi-faceted twist ending proves that the audience too was hoodwinked by the conflict, and leaves them with a sense of great familiarity with the characters.

Riding on this roller coaster of melding storylines tremendously improved my disposition from the undesirable state in which it had begun the evening, and perhaps because of this, Game Night resonates positively in my memory whenever I think about it. I highly recommend this film for everyone, especially in moments when a good laugh is needed.