Funny Games (2008) starring Naomi
Watts, Tim Roth, Michael Pitt
Funny Games (2008) starring Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Michael Pitt
Michael Haneke is a modern master, which his spellbinding films Cache
and The Piano Teacher proved to an international audience. When it came
time for a Hollywood remake of his ultra-disturbing 1997 picture Funny
Games, who better than Haneke himself to helm the new version? And
indeed, the second Funny Games bears the impeccable sense of control
and technique that the Austrian version had: it is a horrifyingly precise
account of a family terrorized by two psychopathic young thugs at a
vacation home. For anyone whos already seen the 97 film, this new one--a
nearly shot-by-shot transcription of the original--will seem superfluous, no
matter how impressive the performances of Naomi Watts and Tim Roth
are. (Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet are suitably creepy as their menacers,
too.) For newbies, the movie might be as infuriating and thought-provoking
as Haneke intends it to be. Thats because Funny Games is an intellectual
game itself, a direct rebuke to the audience that gobbles up gratuitous
violence and cynical manipulation. Haneke sets up our expectations, and
then refuses to provide the conventional catharsis… or the conventional
anything. All of this was pretty bracing in the first go-round, but feels like
gamesmanship in the remake. Even if you dig what Hanekes up to, this is
a brutal movie-watching experience. --Robert Horton
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