Tetris (2023)

Tetris review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

Many people knew Tetris as the addictive game that came standard with a Gameboy. How it got on the Gameboy was a highly complicated legal battle amid the Cold War. It’s a solid reason for someone who glimpses the simple movie title of Tetris and immediately asks how they could make a movie out of that game with falling blocks. Surprisingly, it is a rather thrilling drama, even if it decks its narrative with many nostalgic bells and whistles.

The film follows a few characters but focuses highly on Henk Rogers (Taron Egerton), a struggling marketer for Bullet-Proof Software. While at the Consumer Electronics Show in 1988, he spots a seller offering up this peculiar game called Tetris. The game was developed by Alexey Pajitnov (Nikita Yefremov), a developer working in Soviet Russia at the company ELORG. Rogers discusses the tough legal battle of distributing the game on every platform. He makes a deal with Mirrorsoft, run by the CEO Robert Maxwell (Roger Allam) and his son Kevin Maxwell (Anthony Boyle). Although their deal does seem to go through with Nintendo, problems arise as it becomes clear that Mirrorsoft is trying to screw Henk out of better deals.

It’s only when working with Nintendo that Rogers learns he might be able to sell the game's rights for Nintendo’s new format: Gameboy. Handheld rights had not even been considered as PC, console, and arcade were the only aspects considered. Realizing this might be his chance to avoid becoming poor, he makes the tough call to shirk his family in Japan and meet with ELORG. ELORG, however, gripped with Russian bitterness, is more content to play games with Bullet-Proof and Mirrorsoft, realizing they hold all the cards for such a valuable game. Following is a thrilling exchange of backdoor deals and double-crosses that led up to Tetris becoming one of the most notable Gameboy games upon its release.

This film practically writes itself, offering up a blueprint of where to take liberties with evoking drama and suspense. Henk’s meetings with Alexey are charmingly relatable, for both feeling like family guys being shoved around by bigger corporations. They share similar lives and sensations of rebellion that they both perform to save themselves. The Russians trying to deceive and manipulate for their own gains are posed as devious villains, especially for Valentin Trifonov (Igor Grabuzov), a trade leader of the Soviet Union who is more than willing to go against his government for the right price. The way he casually intimidates, accepts bribes, and threatens to launch Alexey’s children off a balcony is a bit much, but it also makes the film all the more entertaining. More touches of exaggeration, like a breakneck car chase to the airport to avoid KGB agents and staging the film’s acts as video game stages with pixelated titles, make this film engaging.

Tetris takes some liberties here and there, but it presents just enough relatable elements to bring this true story to life. There are plenty of winks and nods to history, reminding the audiences about Nintendo’s history-making moments, treating each reveal like the discovery of a new form of fire. The acting is strong from everybody involved, and it doesn’t feel like the actors are winking along the way. So, yes, Tetris can make a good movie, so long as you’re telling the story of how it came to life and not making some CGI junk about adorable blocks falling in rows.