Film Review: “Funny Games” (zero stars)
Pitt of despair
German director Michael Haneke’s English-language remake of his 1997 film “Funny Games” purports to be a rebuke of the American public’s complicity in transforming torture-porn splatterfests into bankable franchises. But it commits a high sin of didactic social commentary by becoming more fetid and indefensible than any of the “Saw” or “Hostel” films it allegedly has in its sights.
When the genteel classical music of Ann and George’s SUV gets blotted out by John Zorn and Yamantaka Eye’s chaotic avant-garde punk-metal explosions and the film’s title hits the screen in blocky red letters, Haneke sets the film’s unsubtle nihilism in motion. Ann (Naomi Watts) and George (Tim Roth) have brought their young son Georgie (Devon Gearhart) to their vacation home on Long Island, but upon arriving, their neighbors seem unusually aloof. The presence of a preppy, sunken-eyed sociopath (Michael Pitt) lurking near the neighbors does not bode well for things.
Meanwhile, another preppy, sunken-eyed sociopath (Brady Corbet) accosts Ann and asks to borrow some eggs. His oily, solicitous demeanor ratchets up the discomfort until the eggs are broken, and soon the two murderers, calling themselves either “Peter and Paul” or “Beavis and Butt-Head,” force their quarry into a series of emotional and physical torture positions.
Haneke’s camera lingers on these acts, as if to dare audiences to stay in their seats, and Pitt addresses the camera repeatedly, cajoling the viewer to ask for more and more gore. This act of “breaking down the fourth wall” and an absurd technological twist late in “Funny Games” feel less like artful provocation than they do dirt-cheap surrealism — the kind of dumb “gotcha” moments that should be out of a decent director’s system before graduating film school.
As it plays out, “Funny Games” steadily abdicates its moral high ground, culminating in the film’s final scene, a close shot of Pitt’s grinning, demonic face as he turns his gaze to a new victim. The freeze frame serves only to romanticize his character’s malignant evil — like a shot of Freddy Krueger clicking his blades together. It’s really no better than that.
Watts, who executive produced “Funny Games,” is typically excellent in portraying Ann’s intractable peril, but it really does not matter. This film does not deserve good acting. Haneke might be attempting to let the stinking air out of torture porn, but in the process, he has made a film that might just be the nadir of the genre.
In “Funny Games,” an innocent family is treated like horsemeat. The audience is given no better treatment, and while not every film should leave viewers with warm, fuzzy feelings, “Funny Games” will make them feel violated.
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