jfgibson73 Review of Fellowship of the Dice

Fellowship of the Dice (2005)

This movie does a good job advocating for role playing games

[5/10 · 4 June 2011]

Since I am not a gamer, I was thinking about why I seek out movies about role playing and why they hold a strange interest, even when the story isn't that good. I think it's because I like placing myself in the situation of being with a group of friends staying up all night, eating junk food, and just hanging out. So I guess the setting plays a big role. Anyways, this story had a nice dimension to it: it is mostly told from the point of view of a woman who is having her first gaming experience while under house arrest. We learn that drugs were a part of her past, and we see scenes interspersed throughout the movie where she meets with a very hard-nosed parole officer. The point is that she is one screw up away from going to jail. When she begins playing the game, most of the men in the group are happy to have a new player, and a female one at that. However, one player (I think his name was Kevin) does not respond well to change and becomes frustrated at having to slow the game down for Elizabeth. I felt like not a lot happened during much of the game play, other than Kevin whining. The tension comes to a head when Kevin's character is killed and he flips out, accidentally spilling a drink on Elizabeth's ankle bracelet. She then flips out because damaging the bracelet could get her sent to jail. What I thought made this movie worth watching was the way everything got resolved: 1) Kevin calmed down and apologized. I won't exactly say the guy playing him is a good actor, but for most of the movie, I totally thought of him as a his character rather than a guy playing a role. 2) Elizabeth irons things out with her parole officer by explaining what was going on at the game, and we find out that this is actually a healthy alternative for her while she recovers from the problems that got her in trouble. 3) At the end of the game, everyone is geeked at how well it went, and ask Elizabeth is she will play again. She is hesitant, pointing out how much arguing and conflict the group went through, and asks them if their games are always like that. "Do you even like each other?" she wonders at what must be called the climax of the film. And then, another character, who has said almost nothing for the whole movie, gets a nice little Silent Bob-like moment where she gives a speech about how the real point is not the game, but the friendship the group shares, and how it can overcome any conflict. In the end, the filmmakers have made a case for why gaming matters to those who play and what they get out of it. It is done with a kind of sweetness, and I could even imagine that the parole officer wonders, listening to Elizabeths's story, if he would like to play. Score one for the gamers.