FUNNY GAMES Reviewed for CompuServe by Harvey S. Karten
Warner Independent Pictures
Grade: B
Directed by: Michael Haneke
Written By: Michael Haneke
Cast: Naomi Watts, Michael Pitt, Tim Roth, Brady Corbet, Siobhan Fallon, Boyd Gaines
Screened at: Broadway, NYC, 3/7/08
Opens: March 14, 2008 In Michael Radford’s movie “Flawless,” which opens about the same time as “Funny Games,” there is this principal exchange: “It isn’t about the money, is it?” queries Laura Quinn (Demi Moore), while trying to determine her partner’s motivation to steal diamonds. “Nothing important ever is,” responds Mr. Hobbs (Michael Caine). Michael Haneke, who wrote and directs “Funny Games,” probably agrees, as the two villains who invade the secluded vacation home of a rich couple and their small boy have no interest in lucre. This current English-language version of the film is almost an exact replica of the director’s German product, released in 1997, the original taking part in Central Europe. Given America’s own record of violence and love of brutality for entertainment, he doubtless thought that right here in our own country is where the movie belonged: therefore the precise remake. Haneke’s aim is to open under the conventions of a horror-slasher film but then to subvert the genre by noted changes, one being that children are never harmed—writer-directors wait at least for adolescence to have their victims bound, slashed, gashed, hanged, decapitated, shot and drowned. Here’s the possible key to understanding this unusual work. Haneke wants to show the audience how we’re complicit in the violence we see on the screen—not that it’s something to be ashamed of. If we witness barbaric crimes, we thrill to seeing the malefactors done in, the more violently the better. Yet, as Hakane states in press notes, “I’m trying to find ways to show violence as it really is: it is not something that you can swallow. I want to show the reality of violence, the pain, the wounding of another human being.” Presumably he doesn’t go for the naivete of video games wherein hundreds of people might be shot up in a single hour with no feeling of guilt by gamers for enjoying the “sport.” While most of the extreme violence—the shootings, the stabbings, the breaking of legs--takes place off screen, we in the audience should not be ashamed if we want the psychopaths executed in a most painful way. The psychos, two young men who look like Ivy League college students on vacation in Long Island instead of Cancun, gain entrance to a vacation home that is so isolated that one has to sail across water in order to reach the nearest neighbor. The Farbers, Ann (Naomi Watts), George (Tim Roth) and their young son Georgie (Devon Gearhart) park their boat and enter their gated vacation home, but not before noting that their neighbors, the Thompsons (Siobhan Fallon and Boyd Gaines), introduce them to house guests. When one “guest,” Paul (Michael Pitt), assists George with his boat, Peter (Brady Corbet) asks Ann to borrow some eggs for the Thompsons. After they appear to hang around the house far beyond their welcome, leading George to deliver a slap in the face to one of the white-glove-wearing pair, the funny games begin. The ultimate game: the “guests” bet that the Farbers will be dead within twelve hours; by 9 the next morning. The Farbers (silently) bet that they will remain alive. Guess who wins. The funny games of the picture’s title are a lot more insidious and scary than those introduced by George and Martha in Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” as nobody in Albee’s work expects to be other than simply humiliated. As the deadly charade continues, Haneke dishes out the key scene: one of the criminals is shot by a victim. Or is he? Some call this a cult film. Whatever it may be, those who expect the usual trajectory as shown recently in “Hostel 2”—one unfortunate character remains alive to afford redemption—will be flabbergasted. If this were a French film, the title could be “Eparter le bourgeoisie” (“flabbergast the upper-middle class) and that would be saying the least. Though the violence is not shown directly, expect some walkouts. Those who remain will find on display some excellent acting by Naomi Watts, whose face turns beet-red at one point, by Tim Roth, who is surprisingly passive given his usual assertive starring roles, by Michael Pitt, whose extreme politeness should have been a warning. The dialogue is cutting, a central point of interest, Michael Pitt’s character demonstrating a clear intelligence. Unlike almost every other film in every genre, there is virtually no music in the soundtrack. Rated R. 112 minutes © 2007 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online
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