It seems every December, movie fans are faced with the same heated debate: is Die Hard a Christmas movie? Though the film takes place during Christmas and features a lot of Christmas-related imagery, holiday purists point to its violent subject matter and declare it to be a run-of-the-mill action movie. But this debate also overlooks that there are other action flicks out there that are similar to Die Hard, both in terms of tone and setting. One such film is the 2000 action thriller Reindeer Games starring Ben Affleck and Charlize Theron.
Reindeer Games features Affleck as an ex-con named Rudy (get it?) who has just been released from the big house. Days prior to his release, his cellmate, Nick (played by James Frain) is killed in a riot, a cellmate who was also days away from release and eager to meet his erotic pen pal, Ashley (Charlize Theron). As Rudy leaves the prison, he sees Ashley standing outside searching for Nick. His compassion and libido overpower his good sense and Rudy approaches Ashley to tell her that he’s Nick.
After a passionate day of lovemaking, Ashley’s brother, Gabriel (Gary Sinise), break into their hotel room with an armed gang and force Rudy/Nick to help them rob the casino that Nick used to work at. Clearly, Rudy tries to come clean and admit that he’s not really Nick and can’t help them, but when Gabriel threatens to shoot him, Rudy relents.
What I love most about Reindeer Games is how simple the premise is, but how ridiculous it turns out. The mistaken identity/forced-into-a-robbery plot works great and could be used in any number of scenarios, but to center a movie at Christmas time around a plot like that is imaginative. Not to mention the situations the characters are forced into.
Reindeer Games was written by Ehren Kruger, who also wrote three of the six live-action Transformers movies, so he’s no stranger to bombastic action set pieces. But Reindeer Games doesn’t have many of those; its action is more low-key. A foot chase through the snow-covered woods. The shoot out in the casino. A prison riot. Most of the movie is people talking. Granted, these scenes are punctuated with humorous dialogue, but it’s still just talking heads.
One of the strangest facts about Reindeer Games is that it was directed by film legend John Frankenheimer. Best known for The Manchurian Candidate in 1962, Frankenheimer was hailed by Roger Ebert as a “master craftsman.” So, it’s strange to see Frankenheimer’s name attached to a Plain Jane action flick like Reindeer Games. Granted, he brings a certain gravitas to the flick that elevates the material; in the hands of a lesser director, Reindeer Games would surely have floundered to the bottom of the Wal-Mart bargain bin. Well, more than it already has, I suppose.
Frankenheimer’s direction heavily favors the two shot camera angle technique, wherein he frames two characters on screen at a time. In a majority of these shots, one character is in the extreme foreground while the other is in the background, but both of them are in perfect focus. It’s a method to bring some dynamism to an otherwise static shot, and Frankenheimer uses them a lot. It’s clear that even the filmmakers realize that the movie is fairly boring, but they work hard to make it more exciting.
One of Reindeer Game’s more attractive qualities is the cast. The film features a young Ben Affleck. Very young. A pre-Batfleck Affleck. Hell, this was even before Daredevil. Ben Affleck was only five years removed from Mallrats when he made Reindeer Games. It was, of course, a few years after Good Will Hunting, so Ben’s star was on the rise, but he was nowhere near the household name he is now when he took the role. And that kind of makes sense.
Affleck was looking for a foothold; he’d had a variety of different roles back in the late 90s, early 2000s. It seemed like he was trying to find himself in the industry to determine what kind of movie star he’d be. Reindeer Games feels like his audition to the action-star role, and he clearly enjoyed it. Shortly after, he did Pearl Harbor and The Sum of All Fears, not to mention the previously mentioned Batman and Daredevil roles. Granted, Affleck never cemented himself as an action star, favoring the dramatic roles instead, but at least he proved that he could do them if necessary.
Then there’s also Charlize Theron. Theron was even greener than Affleck on the set of Reindeer Games, having only acted for five years before it was released. But even then, she’d been in some high-profile flicks, such as The Devil’s Advocate opposite Keanu Reeves and Al Pacino, and Mighty Joe Young opposite Bill Paxton and a giant CGI gorilla. It would still be three years before her Oscar-winning role in Monster. Though Theron only dabbled in the action-film scene, with Aeon Flux and Mad Max: Fury Road being her most substantial action roles, Reindeer Games showed audiences early on the kind of actress she could be. While she mostly played a devoted girlfriend, afraid of her criminal brother, the final twist showed audiences the level of gravitas she can bring to even the flattest of roles. It’s probably clear that I am a fan of Theron, and this movie is a big reason why.
But that’s not all! Even though it’s only Gary Sinise to round out the main cast, Reindeer Games hits the audience with a ton of familiar faces. Both Donal Logue (from Blade and TV’s Gotham) and Danny Trejo (whom I don’t need to explain at all) are part of Sinise’s crew. We also get to see Isaac Hayes in an immensely bonkers role. He only has one line in the film, and he delivers it so perfectly that it’s hard to forget. Not to mention porn-star Ron Jeremy’s appearance. Unfortunately, he’s credited as “Ron, Hyatt,” but he’s easily recognizable by most degenerates. Hell, even a baby-faced Ashton Kutcher shows up.
But as far as holiday-themed action films go, Reindeer Games delivers. The biggest set piece in the movie has the main cast infiltrating an Indian casino on Christmas Eve dressed and posing as mall Santas at the end of their shifts. This is the culmination of Gary Sinise’s plan to rob the casino, a bunch of Santa Clauses with semi-automatic weapons. It’s true cinematic perfection, especially the way the plan goes horribly wrong, and all of the Santas spray gunfire across the room.
I’ll admit, I only recently rediscovered Reindeer Games a few years ago. Though I’d seen the movie when it hit theaters in 2000, I mostly forgot about it for a decade and a half, and I’d been kicking myself for that since. How many boring Christmases have I suffered through without watching this gem of a movie?
Reindeer Games isn’t highbrow art like It’s a Wonderful Life, Home Alone, or Elf. And it sure as hell isn’t on the same level as Die Hard in either Christmas magic or action set pieces, but it captures enough of that Christmas spirit to be a rollicking good time during the dreary days of December.
