Ivan Drago (David Mazouz) loves board games. In fact he has quite the talent for creating his own games. Alas, Ivan's father (Tom Cavanagh) is not so enthusiastic. For his own mysterious reasons he encourages Ivan to take up a nice inoffensive sport and stay far away from the world of gaming. Even so Ivan puts his talent to use and wins a game designing contest orchestrated by the Profound Games Company although the actual prize: a strange irremovable tattoo, leaves him befuddled. Sadly Ivan's triumph is short-lived. Shortly thereafter a freak balloon accident leaves his mother (Valentina Lodovini) and father missing, presumed dead. The now orphaned Ivan is imprisoned at the gloomy and oppressive Possum Academy. It is but the first in a series of menacing events orchestrated by the Profound Games Company's maniacal and powerful boss Morodian (Joseph Fiennes – if you can't get Voldemort, hire his younger brother). A disgruntled former apprentice to Ivan's grandfather Nicholas Drago (Edward Asner), a once legendary games maker now fallen on hard times, Morodian positions himself as arch-nemesis to the unwitting Ivan, set on turning the poor boy's entire life into a dark and sinister game.
Child actor David Mazouz has proven quietly charismatic as young Bruce Wayne on hit TV series Gotham and is equally impressive here as the bright and very likable young hero who bears the same name as Dolph Lundgren's monolithic menace from Rocky IV (1985). Coincidence or bizarre in-joke? Based on the novel by Argentinean writer and comic strip publisher Pablo De Santis, The Games Maker marks the live action debut of veteran Argentinean animator Juan Pablo Buscarini (Condor Crux (1999), The Tooth Fairy (2006), The Ark (2007)) who shot the elaborate Canadian-Italian-Argentinean-Columbian co-production in 3D largely in his home country, mixing international stars with local talent. Buscarini and his team imbue the film with a charming storybook feel. Production designer Dimitri Capuani delivers a retro-Forties art deco look infused with warmly nostalgic visuals by cinematographer Roman Osin. Yet The Games Maker wisely leavens its whimsy and artifice with darker psychological undertones worthy of comparison with the stories of Roald Dahl. Indeed the boarding school in which Ivan is trapped is a gothic nightmare full of sneering grotesques straight out of Dahl's Matilda.
Tapping a near-universal fascination with board games De Santis' elaborate plot shrewdly discerns that most popular games convey a specific philosophy about life. Indeed the heart of the film is an ideological conflict that pits Ivan's steadfast belief in the ideal of equal opportunity against Morodian's cynical desire to craft games that prove: “Those with the greater means at their disposal have the greater chance of success.” The almost Hitchcockian conceit in making both hero and villain embittered orphan genius game makers that use creativity to try and exorcise their dark and tragic past is among several ingenious ideas that elevate an occasionally choppy narrative. Buscarini gives us moments of intrigue and wonder but also fumbles a few confusing plot points. If the deliberate pace proves heavy-going in spots with thrills largely restricted to the last reel, The Games Maker nonetheless spins an intriguing mystery.
Fittingly for a story about puzzles the tone is disarmingly cerebral, a throwback to an earlier, more elegant style of children's adventure. What is more the characters are vividly eccentric without being gratingly over the top. Among the neat little ideas: the comic book that foretells the fate of Ivan's parents, the town made of giant inhabitable board games, the 'Professional Ivan' (Ivan Masliah) hired by Morodian to reenact the boy's every move (who ironically proves of great help to the real Ivan) and Anunciacion (Megan Charpentier from Mama (2013)), the clever little girl who employs hidden doors and surreally elaborate disguises to become a secret student at Possum Academy and Ivan's closest friend and most resourceful ally.