Michael Haneke mounts a relentless assault on American audiences with his latest release, a shot-by-shot remake of his provocative 1997 film "Funny Games." The entire movie works as a commentary on the saturation and glorification of graphic violence in Hollywood cinema. Rather than appropriating the conventions that turn brutality into a digestible form of entertainment, Haneke dwells on the horrifying nature of human suffering.
The flawless screenplay, clever direction and slew of top-notch performances make for an intentionally nerve-wracking experience. "Funny Games" is not meant to be enjoyed, but it can be appreciated for its daring originality and masterly crafted argument.
A typically upper-middle-class family settles into their lakefront vacation house for a routine weekend trip. Father and son, George (played by Tim Roth) and Georgie (Devon Gearhart), immediately head out to the dock to launch their sailboat into the water while Anna (Naomi Watts) prepares dinner. Their idyllic holiday quickly turns sour when two uninvited guests, Paul (Michael Pitt) and Peter (Brady Corbet), show up at their door. The blond-haired, blue-eyed young men are perfectly polite at first, but they soon overstay their welcome and refuse to leave. The tension escalates when one of the intruders hits George in the knee with a golf club. For the rest of the night, the family is held hostage as the two thugs torment them by inflicting acts of physical and psychological torture.
The structure of the plot is squarely situated within the horror tradition, yet Haneke reverses the audience's expectations of the story by violating the fundamental rules of the genre. The man of the house is paralyzed for the whole movie, leaving his wife and child at the mercy of two psychotic killers.
In addition, the filmmaker provides no reasoning behind the villains' insatiable thirst for blood. They murder for kicks and nothing more. In one scene, Anna asks Peter why he won't simply kill her. "You shouldn't forget the importance of entertainment," he responds. Paul mocks the idea of having a motive by listing the cliché explanations that always account for violent behavior in films. He can't help but laugh as he tells his victims that his partner in crime is a white-trash, closeted homosexual who was molested as a child.
Haneke further disorients the audience with his unique filming techniques. In the opening scene, the dialogue is shot off screen as the husband and wife protagonists play a game of Name that Tune in the car. For the first few minutes, the director denies the audience the comfort of matching faces with the sounds of his main characters' voices.
Barely any of the violence happens within the frame. Instead, the long shots with little action or camera movement give the audience a frighteningly intimate and observational perspective of the family's grueling emotional experience.
"Funny Games" is so successful at conveying the horror of the situation in part because of its stellar acting. Haneke agreed to work on this American remake on the condition that Watts play the lead female role. According to him, she is the actress most capable of showing extreme grief. Watts, Roth and Gearhart all deliver such realistic and gut-wrenching performances that they become almost unbearable to watch.
Pitt and Corbet maintain a chilling guise of civility. The vicious sociopaths never forget their "pleases" and "thank-yous" as they engage in endless acts of cruelty. Corbet's captivating rendition brings his more reserved, but equally threatening, character a distinct edge.
