The American dream is to get past Marvin Gardens and buy Park Place or Boardwalk. Monopoly, for some, is a game and, for others, a lifelong reality. This film is about one man's quest for the easy road to Boardwalk. Jason Staebler (Bruce Dern) is making his last go for the big break. He has convinced himself that he can negotiate a deal to take over a resort off the coast of Hawaii. He summons his brother David (Jack Nicholson), an FM radio monologist in Philadelphia, to meet him in Atlantic City where the deal is to be finalized.
While they wait around for the impossible dream to materialize, Jason tries to renew contact with his brother. His aging wife Sally (Ellen Burstyn) and her attractive stepdaughter Jessica (Julia Anne Robinson) are along to perk up his spirits. Maintaining a suite in the plush but decadent Essex-Charleton Hotel, the four clash under the anxious tension of waiting. It turns out that Jason is only serving as a front man for a black syndicate that makes its money in drugs. His bid for the island is as empty as the Atlantic City beach where they frolic against a chill winter wind. His hope for Boardwalk in the last monopoly game of his life is as unreal as the mock Miss America ceremony that the foursome stage in the deserted Convention Hall.
Beyond his troubles with the syndicate, Jason fails to realize that his wife is undone by his affections for Jessica. In a terrifying scene on the beach, Sally throws all her possessions and makeup into a bonfire. She cuts off her hair and vows to face life with new hope. David — unhinged by Jason's slavery to illusion and Sally's hysteria — cannot stop the violent act that finally does Jason in. One of his thoughts — "Tragedy is the top 40" — turns out to be true, and, in a monologue on radio following his brother's funeral, David asks, "How do you know who's really crazy?"
Jack Nicholson turns in an edgy, quirky performance as the self-effacing David, and Ellen Burstyn is properly irksome as Sally. The choice of Atlantic City in the winter gives the film a perfect setting for its bleak meditation on the American dream. But director Bob Rafelson's work will have a limited audience — especially since the mood of the country is unresponsive to gloomy moral tales.