Movie Review - 'Funny Games'

Funny Games

Starring Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, and Michael Pitt
Directed by Michael Haneke
Rated R

A near shot-for-shot, word-for-word remake of his own German language film from 1997, Michael Haneke’s Funny Games is likely to be the most unsettling 90 minutes you’ll spend in a movie theater this year.

There are horror movies that try to turn your stomach with unnecessary amounts of blood and gore (paging Eli Roth and Rob Zombie) and then there are those that try to creep into your head and knock you for a psychological loop, the kind that leaves you forcefully rubbing your forearms to send away the shivers that raise every last hair. Funny Games is in that category, deliberately and carefully disposing of most of its possible entertainment value just to see how far you can be pushed.

Though there is very little blood – and the blood that is shown is after a violent act occurs off screen – it’s hard to escape the savage behavior of the film’s villains, a pair of odd teenagers (Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet) dressed in all white down to their gloves, even if you don’t see very much of it.

The pair forces their way into the Hamptons retreat of Ann (Naomi Watts) and George (Tim Roth) by posing as friends of neighbors who need to borrow four eggs. From that innocuous beginning comes a depraved, unrelenting emotional and mental assault on the unsuspecting couple and their young son. But Haneke has a point to all his pointless madness. Less a traditional horror movie and more an indictment of our culture’s bloodlust and the voyeuristic kick we seem to get out of watching the suffering of others, Funny Games refuses to let us turn away.

Scenes that would appear to be too banal for film or static shots of one character being humiliated or punished without a break in the action – not even a single cutaway to change the scenery – are as big a part of Haneke’s storytelling as his story. The director wants you to feel helpless, shocked, and maybe even ashamed that you paid to watch this kind of torture. There’s very little release for the audience once it starts and very little resolution once it stops.

As a filmmaking experiment, Haneke has definitely succeeded in forcing his audience to tap out before the final frame. This one will have a lot of walk outs, but those who stay will see not only a director who’s clearly up to something, but also a cast that’s completely invested in what their director is trying to accomplish. It’s hard to call Funny Games a great film because the audience is more a target of criticism than passive viewers wanting entertainment, but it is an interesting study, albeit one that’s incredibly hard to sit through.