Written, directed, and produced by Rick Alyea, Part of the Game is a drama/thriller that focuses on the dangers of drugs to an individual.
The film begins with Robert (Richard De Klerk) as he heads into an appointment to meet a doctor. Robert is revealed to be very successful at doing one of the most illegal businesses out there: buying and selling drugs. After filling out the paperwork and gazing out the window thinking about his sister, Robert steps into the doctor’s office so he can talk about something, alone.
Robert explains he is seeing Dr. Caldericci (Mitra Loraz) to explain who he really is, or rather a few small details about what caused him to come to the office. In the beginning, Robert comes from his job managing a donut shop to visit his parents. But the reunion is cut short when his teenage sister Janice (Jovanna Huguet) drives in. After the quick visit to catch up with everyone, Robert heads over to a car a distance away where he changes outfits and drives to a parking lot where he ends up swapping the car for another better car with a client. The client finds a present in his new car while Robert heads off.
In the present day, Robert explains his business plan, how he does something on the side so he can retire at 25 and not worry about money at all. In a very subtle way, it’s explained he’s a drug dealer working alongside another man named Marcus (Colin Lawrence).
Later , while Robert is playing basketball, his friend known as “Crazy” tells him that one of his heroin clients turned out to be Robert’s sister. Robert rushes off to find Janice. When he gets to the address, he snaps at her and then realizes there are druggies in the house. Robert drives her away and tells her to keep it confidential as well as find better people to socialize with.
Janice has trouble in her life and she gets more upset when she realizes she’s too short for her school’s basketball team. Janice’s druggy boyfriend Drew (Rich Johnson) invites her back to the drug house, saying she doesn’t need to listen to Robert and should do drugs to keep herself stress free. Eventually Janice caves in and takes some drugs. Things get awkward when Robert visits the family once again and their mother explains Janice has been sick for a while. Robert confronts Janice once again and tries to convince his mother but she boots him out of the house.
He goes to see Drew so he can deal with the issue in another manner. Drew threatens to assault Robert but Robert knows who his dealer is and tells Drew to stop seeing Janice. Through the rest of the film Robert talks about the whole conflict between his drug dealing job and the family issues that arise. He tries to stand with his family when they find out about Janice. Janice and Drew break up, and Marcus gets in trouble with the law when he’s trying to transport some blow to a very important client.
It sounds chaotic, but the delivery was very simple and made the story gripping and incredible. The story really makes you think about what kind of issues can arise, the characters are played professionally, and it wasn’t shown in the typical manner of most drug dealer movies. There may have been some camera shakiness here and there, but I think that adds to the tension in some scenes. While some of the layout was predictable, the story still did perfectly and it was one of the greatest movies I’ve seen in a while.