Funny Games - Review

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Length: 107 min

Rated: R

Distributor: Warner Independent

Release Date: 2008-03-14

Starring: Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Devon Gearhart, Michael Pitt, Brady Corbet

Directed by Michael Haneke

Produced by Christian Baute, Chris Coen, Hamish McAlpine, Andro Steinborn

Written by Michael Haneke

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Reviewed by Katey Rich : 2008-03-13 18:56:24

I walked out of Funny Games desperately needing a drink. Not because I was so disturbed by what I had seen on screen, though I was, but because I was so frustrated and angry that I’d been forced to sit through it. Michael Haneke made Funny Games 10 years ago, in German, and now has remade his own film, shot by shot, in English, for the sole purpose of getting more Americans to see it. I guarantee you that will not happen.

Funny Games is being marketed as a by-the-numbers horror thriller, in which two psychos torture an innocent, blond family. In one way it is that, but it is much more a movie about filmmaking, examining the power a director has over his audience and an audience’s desire to see awful violence in movies. Haneke has made a horror movie but he hates them, and uses his admirable arsenal of film knowledge to help the audience see the error of their torture-loving ways.

The setup is fairly boilerplate horror movie stuff. A wealthy family arrives at their vacation home, only to be interrupted by two white-clad young men, who want nothing more than to bait, torture, and kill. You know from the beginning how it’s going to go, but the interesting thing is how Haneke goes about it. Early on one of the young killers (played by the entire loathsome Michael Pitt) winks at the camera; later he turns straight to it and asks the audience what the killers should do. Haneke breaks the fourth wall to remind you of your own desires; you’re in on the plot with the killers, because really, you’ve come to this movie to see some killing.

As the boys torture their victims, so Haneke tortures us, the presumed horror movie audience. At one point the wife, Ann (Naomi Watts), is forced to strip, but we see only her anguished face in close-up. Later a character is shot, but all we ever see is a splatter of blood on the wall. It’s like Haneke is slapping our hand, saying “Oh no, you can’t have your violence! You’ve been very, very bad Americans!”

The overall effect, needless to say, is entirely obnoxious. Haneke understands very well how to manipulate an audience, the usual cinematic tools used to pique interest, provide catharsis or satisfaction. But when trying to break these rules he missteps fatally. By reminding us over and over that it’s “just a movie,” Haneke makes us aware that he’s there, pulling the strings behind the scenes. But later, when he wants us to be horrified by the violence and torture, he’s already tipped his hand. How are we intended to engage in a movie that refuses to give us the courtesy of suspending our disbelief?

Haneke wants the Americans who have made Hostel and Saw such hits to see this movie and renounce their love of horror, but the only people who will see this and stay the whole way through are film critics, who will be fascinated by Haneke’s use of style and possibly sucked in by his message. Funny Games is a movie that lives and dies on its gimmick, and when you figure out that all it’s doing is toying with us, there’s nothing left worth watching.

The kicker is that Haneke isn’t the first director, by a long shot, to implicate the audience in on screen violence or other bad behavior. Hitchcock did it in virtually all his movies, same for Brian De Palma, and even No Country for Old Men let us enjoy Javier Bardem’s killing spree before breaking our hearts when it takes our favorite victim. Haneke’s confrontational use of film style to get across the same point does not make him innovative or unique; it makes him childish. In the end the only funny games are the ones Haneke is playing with the audience. Unlike the poor, victimized family of the movie, the audience has the choice not to play.

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Lexi
April 30, 2008 at 17:16

I will have to agree here. I just watched the film and was not impressed. I understand what it was the director was trying to do and that the choices that he made were purposeful, however I must admit I found it all rather annoying.
Approximately 1 minute into the film when the obnoxious hard core death metal began to play it was so obviously contrived to make the audience feel ill at ease but really it was just loud and obnoxious.
I could accept killers with no motive, I do often feel that there is too much explaining of motives and characters in films but from the start the director has chosen to take us out of the movie going experience and forced us to watch his directing choices. I find this exceedingly egocentric, and I must say I 've seen it done in other films with much greater effect.
You know fairly early on how the story has to end as it's been set up very deliberately so that only one ending can occur which really takes away from any tension the film is meant to create.
Also as we are made aware of our presence in the film and reminded in such and incredibly unsubtle way that it's only a film and that none of it is real, it makes it impossible to care what happens to the characters, and if you cannot care what happens to the characters then their is no point in watching the film.
The only good thing I can say is that the actors did a good job in their portrayal of the family, the killers were actually a bit weak and disengaging to me. I almost wanted to see them defeated, not to see the good guys win (as it's set up early on that this is impossible) but simply to get them off the screen.
Overall I have to say that if I had known I was paying good money to watch a director masturbate his ethics onto a movie screen for the better part of two hours, I would have stayed home and washed my hair.

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Funny Games - Review

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