The Bottom Line
Pros
- Succeeds in its aim to disturb
- Strong direction
- Solid acting
- Well-intentioned
Cons
- Overly manipulative
- Pretentiously pointed
- Little entertainment value
Description
- Starring Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Michael Pitt, Brady Corbet, Devon Gearhart, Boyd Gaines, Siobhan Fallon
- Directed by Michael Haneke
- Rated R
- DVD Release Date: June 10, 2008
Guide Review - 'Funny Games' (2008) DVD Review
The Movie
This shot-for-shot remake of Michael Haneke's Austrian cult hit Funny Games aims to make it more accessible to American audiences, but that doesn't mean the content's any more accessible. The plot is simple: a family of three is taken hostage in their vacation home by a pair of adolescent boys seeking to play a deadly "game." The object of the game is just to survive the next 12 hours. What sets these villains apart from typical movie maniacs is that they seem to be "normal," polite, boy-next-door types.
It's this sort of manipulation of expectations that's at the heart of Funny Games. Haneke strives to avoid Hollywood portrayals of crime and redemption, of violence and heroism. Happy endings are not part of his game plan. Unlike other films that portend to portray the ugliness of violence, Funny Games doesn't play it for cheap horror thrills -- most of the violence is off-screen -- but that doesn't mean it's any less exploitive.
It exploits our emotions by making the assailants as irritatingly smug and coldhearted as possible and the victims as limp and inept as possible. (When mother Anna discovers that her cell phone works, she asks husband George who she should call. WHO?!?) Unlike most horror movies, which strike a balance between disturbing and entertaining, Funny Games is all disturbing -- like watching a kitten used as a piñata.
With its purposefulness, it's more admirable than enjoyable. The direction is particularly strong, with every shot precisely planned to heighten the realism, despite a sterility in the dialogue that comes from being translated. The early sense of foreboding and the deliciously anarchistic opening title sequence are the film's most effective moments. The remaining nihilism becomes ultimately numbing.
The DVD
In line with the unorthodox film, the unorthodox DVD has no special features.
Movie: C+
DVD: F
